"Fight for 'just things' in an objective manner" (Rana Husseini)



Rana Husseini spoke to us today, and the quote above was her response to a question by one of our students who asked if Rana had any advice for aspiring journalists.

Rana is an internationally recognized and award winning journalist as well as a human rights defender. She writes for The Jordan Times, where she covers crime. As Rana told us, it was her work covering the murder of a 16-year old girl (in May 1994) that changed her life forever - both as a journalist and as a human rights/women's rights advocate.

After investigating this murder, Rana discovered the extent of so-called "honor crimes", murder and other violence against women in the name of "honor". (This would eventually become the name of her book, "Murder in the name of Honour", 2009) Honor crimes (or "so-called" honor crimes, as Rana emphasizes) are violence against women by family members who seek to "reclaim" family honor. Family members (mostly males) will claim that the family's honor has been lost due to the actions of a girl or woman in the family - e.g., pre-marital sex, pregnancy outside of marriage, or other "crimes of dishonoring the family", as alleged by the men of the family.

We know that violence against women is universal. It is not confined to Arab or Muslim societies. Indeed, Rana found that Jordanian Christians also commit such "honor killings", and we know it happens globally in all cultures. Still, there is a level of acceptance of the killers, and a level of disrespect for the victims, that plagues Jordan. And this has become a major part of Rana's life - both as a journalist and as an activist.

Rana received the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998, and the Human Rights Watch Award in 2000, both of which for her reporting on violence against women in Jordan. She has received numerous other awards as well (see: http://www.ranahusseini.com/Awards.html)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You can't get there (Serbia) from here (Kosovo) - go to Montenegro!

Image
“You can’t cross this boundary from here [the Kosovo “border”/Administrative boundary]. You’ll have to go to Montenegro and then enter Serbia from there.” Thus sayeth the Serbian policeman at the boundary/border, yesterday (Thursday) around 3:30 pm. The reason? We had a stamp on our passports that read “Republic of Kosovo”, which Serbia does not recognize as independent nation-state (nor do a small number of nation-states of the international community – Russia, Spain, Greece, and 6 other members of the EU). “Kosovo is Serbia.” What he was proposing was for us to “re-enter” Kosovo (1/4 th of a mile back from where we came); return to the town of Mitroveca (where we just left 90 minutes ago); cut over to the West, and enter Montenegro (another 90 minutes-2 hours); then drive to the Montenegro-Serbia border (another hour); then drive until we catch up with the road we could have been on – only one hour from the point on the map where we were standing that ver
Read more

Student blogs - check them out!!

Image
on the right side of this blog, run your cursor over the second box down from the right - you should see "Student Blogs Balkans 2012".  As students send me their URL (addresses) for their blogs, I will add them here.  the students have unique insights into much of the same thing I discuss - but then again, so much more!  Check them out when you can. While I'm "here", I'll post just two more pictures from July 9.  First, a picture of our meeting with Ambassador Rod Moore, former US Ambassador to Montenegro, career foreign service officer, and now works as the 2nd in command at the OHR - the Office of the High Representative.  OHR is essentially the "authority of last resort" in Bosnia.  We met with Ambassador Moore just after we witnessed the ceremony honoring the 520 souls who were to be buried today in Srebrenica.  Here is one more picture, below, that shows the flowers that were placed on the 3 semi-trucks, carrying the 520 coffins that were
Read more