Arab Voices: Human Rights Debate in the Middle East - Hardcover

Dwyer, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415044596 ISBN 13: 9780415044592

Synopsis

This book, first published in 1991, moves beyond sensational headlines to explore how Middle Eastern men and women speak and feel about the societies in which they live. Kevin Dwyer makes use of extensive research and interview material from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco and combines first-hand testimony with vivid and illuminating analysis. The voices are those of lawyers, political militants, religious thinkers, journalists and human rights activists who focus their discussion on the question of human rights and critical issues in social and cultural life.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Dwyer directed Amnesty International's Middle East department for six years. He is a research anthropologist and author of the book Moroccan Dialogues. Since 1985 he has been researching human rights and economic and social development.

Reviews

An anthropologist and former head of Amnesty International's Middle East section, Dwyer ( Moroccan Dialogues ) spent six years researching the conceptions and praxis of human rights in three Islamic nations--Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Drawing heavily on interviews, Dwyer presents these countries mired in a pervasive crisis brought on by modernization under which, while there may be broad agreement among elites as to the value of human rights, there is no consensus as to what those rights should be or how individual rights should be balanced against societal interests. Yet ultimately the author fails in his aim of understanding "Middle Eastern notions of human rights." As Dwyer himself admits, the three nations examined, each with strong ties to the West, are not representative of Islam as a whole. More serious is his decision to limit his contacts to intellectuals. Educated, and to varying degrees Westernized, these individuals present a skewed perspective on societies where, as one Moroccan sociology student said,p. 123 among the common people, "you don't even hear the word 'freedom' expressed."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is not the typical human rights report, listing physical and mental abuses in particular countries. Written by an anthopologist and former director of Amnesty International's Middle East department, it is instead an examination of where human rights in the broadest sense fit into the cultures of Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia and whether there can be a universally applicable notion of human rights. Through a series of interviews with leading intellectuals in these three countries, Dwyer presents information on history, politics, and religion in an attempt to define human rights in the three societies and, by extension, to illustrate the differences between Middle Eastern/Arab/Islamic and Western concepts of human rights. The rambling interview style can be confusing, making generalizations and conclusions difficult. Nevertheless, this is an informative, thought-provoking study and is recommended for academic libraries and others with specialized Middle East collections.
- Ruth K. Baacke, Bellingham P.L., Wash.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415044596
• ISBN 13: 9780415044592
• Binding: Hardcover