My interests include international human rights and women’s rights issues (particularly in the United States, the Middle East and Muslim world), critical approaches to human rights theory and discourse, the intersections of law, religion and culture, and international law and compliance theory, namely constructivism (a sociologically-based theory emerging out of the international relations discipline). My first book, "After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East" was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2009. The book argues that if the post-September 11th era is to bear the imprint of a succession of setbacks to the human rights paradigm epitomized by Abu Ghraib’s arresting images, the era should also be marked by human rights’ re-emergence at the fore of local and global contests and consciousness. Through field research conducted in Washington, DC, Amman Jordan, and Sana’a, Yemen, the book traverses three pivotal human rights struggles of the era: the American human rights campaign to challenge Bush administration “War on Terror” torture and detention policies from within, Middle Eastern efforts to challenge American human rights practices (in effect, reversing the traditional West to East flow of human rights mobilizations and discourses), and Middle Eastern attempts to challenge their own leaders’ human rights violations in light of American post-September 11 interventions in the Middle East. The snapshots which emerge are of human rights repeatedly being appropriated, invoked, promoted, claimed, reclaimed and contested within and between the American and Middle Eastern contexts. By placing these deployments side by side and highlighting the myriad of contradictions they encompass and produce, the book brings to light human rights’ role as both an emancipatory and hegemonic force following September 11th. There are thus several facets to the inquiry. First, it explores the era’s key intersections between international human rights norms and power as they unfold in post-September 11th era. Second, it lays out the many interconnections and layers of the era’s American and Middle Eastern encounter within the human rights realm. Finally, it draws out the primary lessons of post-September 11th developments for moving the human rights project forward. Before beginning this research, I completed an LLM thesis examining Islamic feminists’ strategies for bringing international human rights norms into domestic contests over women’s rights under Islamic law in Iran. The research conducted for the thesis consisted of extensive interviews and interactions with members of the Iranian women’s movement, government officials and Shi’a clerics. I am also a member of the New York State Bar. In 2004, I participated in the policy and academic debates surrounding faith-based arbitration (“Shari’a Tribunals”) in Canada. In these debates, I advocated achieving a balance between upholding women’s rights and recognizing Muslim migrant women’s agency. I have previously also been involved in human rights projects in Iran, the West Bank and Texas. I am currently living in the Washington D.C. Metro area where I manage a legal advocacy program for a domestic violence non-profit and pursue human rights research as an independent scholar. I can be reached at shadi.mokht@gmail.com.
Articles
Editors' Note to Inaugural Issue of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights (with Mashood A. Baderin, Mahmood Monshipour, and Lynn Welchman), Muslim World Journal of Human Rights (2007)
Human Rights in the Post-September 11th Era: Between Hegemony and Emancipation, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights (2007)
The post-September 11th era has presented immense challenges and disappointing setbacks for the advancement of...
Books
After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East (2009)
This book traverses three pivotal human rights struggles of the post-–September 11th era: the American...
Contributions to Books