å April 2017

Due Sunday, April 30th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase, make sure to include the proper citation.

In her essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving,” Lila Abu-Lughod argues that discourses on humanitarianism and human rights in the 21st century rely in some way on constructions of Muslim women. Drawing on details from the text, describe in your own words Lughod’s critique of constructions of veiled women and “vocations of saving others” (2002:789).

In this article, “Rights Talk and the experience of Law: Implementing Women’s Human Rights to Protection from Violence” the author Sally Engle Merry interviews women that have been the victims of crimes, such as domestic violence.  The activism for these women has time and time needed the legal system and it’s “justice component” to aid in the support of “the battered women’s movement.” These women have experienced the legal system for themselves and have created their own ” subjectivities” based on these experiences.

It is a harsh reality to think that many women are still the victims of domestic violence. It is not easy for women to come forward and prosecute the abuser. In this article. women share how challenging it was to come forward and prosecute their abusers but also how challenging it can be to prosecute them through our legal system. Sally Engle Merry says “I argue that the adoption of the rights-defined identity under identity-shifting circumstances such as battering depends on the individual’s experience with the law.” Women in general are often victimized. Those women, who have suffered domestic violence will always been seen as victim however depending on our justice and legal system this women may be able to move on and not just been seen or feel like the victim of domestic violence. The experience of this abuse does not have to define and or shape a woman if her abuser is prosecuted and she is treated with respect during the process.

Sally Engle Merry expresses the importance of how going through a “healthy” legal process is just as crucial to a women’s identity as coming forward and prosecuting her abuser. When going through this process each step a women has to take can either negatively or positively affect her “identity shifting”. For example, if a women makes a domestic violence call to the police and the Police Officer on duty tells the abuser “to take a walk.” this can negatively effect that women and her identity by making her feel as though her voice and even her rights as a human being mean nothing, because she has called and asked for help and/or justice and in return she was not meant with that but instead she was dismissed. On the other hand, if that same woman was to make a domestic violence call to the police and the police came and arrested her abuser she would feel as though her voice and rights do matter. This would have a positive effect on her identity-shifting’.

Sally Merry examines the relationship between woman rights, that being woman who have suffered from violence, and the legal system. Merry interviews woman who have experienced domestic violence and who have reached out to the legal system for help and protection against their abusers. Merry suggests that if a woman is suffering from abuse and is rejected by the local officials for help then she is more likely to feel she has no rights and is not worthy of rights- perhaps she many feel she isn’t equal to her abuser. Not only does the legal system opinions matter and affect her thought process, but the society in which she lives in, the people she surrounds herself with can way heavy on her decisions to seek justice. “Thus, an individual’s willingness to take on rights depends on her experience trying to assert them” (347). If people who support her and push her to fight for her rights surround her then she will identify as a person with human rights, equal rights.

Ironically a woman has to fit the descriptions as a “good victim” to receive recognition and protection from the legal system. If a woman fights back or provokes her abusers then she isn’t a “good victim”, they are viewed as troublesome and this can affect their cases. Some of the woman interviewed who had suffered terrible abuse from their spouses didn’t want to punish them, they wanted to make them realize that they were wrong. If a woman just wants recognition of the wrongdoing and then is willing to still be with her abuser is she truly finding her identity and human rights? As stated, “I didn’t want to punish him, just set him straight”(364). If a woman seeks help from the law and then returns to the abuser after, how is the law suppose to maintain protection for her? There are so many factors that go into the rights of woman, social norms in the town of Hilo played heavily on these domestic violence cases. For many years men played a masculine leader role in which he was to keep his wife in check, and if she wasn’t obeying him, then he would use violence to ensure she was doing her part in the household. However there have been many changes to the law because of feminist movements that are advocating for their rights. “A more complex set of penalties for batterers has developed both within and outside the law. Of particular importance is the development of new forms of governance that focus on self-management and a redefinition of masculinity” (379).

Subjectivities are produced through encounters with the legal system.  Feelings and opinions are created when you have dealt with the legal system.  Sally Engle Merry talks about how women and their encounters with the law affects a womans identiy.  For example it was mentioned in the reading that ” A battered women may be pressured by kin to feel she is a bad wife, while her partner may claim she is taking away his masculinity.  The only way she can rescue him from this loss is to deflect the very legal sanctions she has called down upon him. (Merry 345)  This situation right here can have such a major impact on a womens sense of self and the way she views the law.  why does a woman have to feel like she owes a man something or that she has to change her actions in order to please a man even when she knows deep down in her heart that she needs to guard and protect herself as a woman .

The reading also mentioned police , partners , relatives, friends and neighbors all playing a part in making women feel bad or making them feel as if they did something wrong when they decide to take their abusive husbands to court.  Police act as if battered women do not have the right to complain about the violence of their husbands making these women feel as if they are discouraged from seeing themselves as having such a right. (Merry 347) Partners , relatives, friends and neighbors tell these battered women that they are not a good wife for having her husband in court saying that she did something to him for him to hit her.  This type of mentality that society  has can honestly mess with a woman’s mind.  How can people in society cover for these abusive men?  It is as if the law and the people involved in the case of a battered woman puts that women in a place od discomfort when its time for her to make her decision on the man that abused her.  A battered women turns to the legal system for help but theirs close relatives and friends judging her . There should be no reason why women should be fearful or have any anxiety about turning to the courts.  This shows that the people close to these women have a major impact on their decision making .  Any one who has been mistreated and brings it to the legal system should be treated fairly and not judged. unlike these battered women who had their own share of judgments

In her article “Rights Talk and the Experience of Law: Implementing Women’s Human Rights to Protection from Violence”, Sally Engle Merry shows how women as victims of violence by their husbands  come to take on rights consciousness through their experiences with the judicial legal system. first, one developed a rights-define self when one has the courage to speak up and seek help from the law. However, their encounters with police, prosecutors, judges, really define if the problem is relevant and if the offender is guilty, if he is not, then this subjectivity is undermine. A woman comes to take on a rights-define self when she sees herself as an autonomous self protected by the state. Some women are not still able to be aware of this consciousness because of their abused status that their husbands use as a way to show their masculinity, therefore abused women tend to file charges then drop them.

Through the interviews the author directed to various women sharing their experiences with the law, many women victims of violence by just taking a initiative to call the police for help, have already taken a huge step forward seeing themselves a defined beings capable of getting their rights protected. Since in the town of Hilo, the cases of violence against women have increased dramatically in the last 25 years, as a result of men trying to maintain their identify of masculinity and power by using violence, wives with the help of support groups and social services have taken taken a subject position by denouncing their husbands before the law.

The experience of calling to police, walking into courtrooms, filling out forms, gave women a sense of power and therefore enact a different self. This is how the law defines the self by recognizing women as subjects protected by law from violence even within the intimate sphere. But, when the legal system fail to arrest or to prove that the offender is guilty, this subjectivity  is mediated by this, However, they can still become an entitled person by following through with the case, leaving the offender and overall not provoking violence to prove that she is a rational and autonomous person capable of taking on this protection. After this encounters with the law, either with a good or unsatisfying outcome, as the author states “She acquires a new self, now no longer enclosed in the private sphere of the family but constituted by the law even within that family”.

In Rights Talk and the Experience of Law: Implementing Women’s Human Rights to Protection from Violence by Sally Engle Marry, she discusses many important points that influenced women’s laws, specially laws of victims who go through domestic violence and other type of abuse situation by their intimate or family member. Marry argues about how women can be protected against intimate partner’s violence and what can be done to have positive results. With the help of battered women’s movement and the laws women violence can have a lower rate. The rights defined self is a critical issue for the battered women’s movement, which means the right to talk to encourage abuse women to look for help from the law. The battered women’s movement has always focused on a criminal justice component to its activism. In other words, it inspired victims to see violation as a crime to make them reach for the legal system for help. Marry and her assistant went through a long process to support their argument, she interviewed thirty women and twenty-one men and asked them about their experiences with the legal system and most importantly their reactions to the experiences. Everyone had a different opinion and reaction, which helped Marry and her assistant make progress on her project. From my understanding the subjectivities are produced through encounters with the legal system because is a better way to protect victims from domestic violence or any other type of abuse by their intimate partner.For example, women who were victims of domestic violence by their intimate partner were afraid of pressing charges or calling the police for help. Women in this situation would usually make a step back, which eventually give more power to man. One of the many reasons why those women were afraid was because all man was dominant and had power over women. With time women find a way to fit into the laws of being protected and acknowledgeable. The law plays a huge part in the redefinition of subjectivity. The importance is that women encounter conditional help. This is good because by women reporting how they were being threat it by their partners the law would take in mind women’s suffering. Another reason why making domestic violence records was significant at that time was because it gave women an identity as a wife, human being, women who is protecting themselves and children. In conclusion, the subjectivity that Merry tries to break down to make other understand how it works has to do with gender, status, religion, and other factors. Another factor that plays alone with her argument is the rights-defined.

Most abusive individuals make the wrong choices. By verbally and or physically attacking an individual. Some individuals believe any aggressive actions toward their spouse is a family matter. They assume husband wife; girlfriend boyfriend and personal relationships are private problems. Any individual with such an attitude about forcefully harming another person has committed a crime. Their aggressive behavior is no longer a private incident. The domestic occurrence quickly becomes an awkward situation whereas an individual finds himself entangled with the courts. Any assault incident in no longer in the private sphere its governed by the judicial system therefore it’s a public matter. The judicial institution has clear laws about violence against women. The discipline imposed upon individuals can produce an individual who follows the normal acceptable positive behavior. Or the punitive actions against a batterer can be a hindrance whereas the individual shifts further into deviant behavior patterns.
Most men who are drawn into the judicial system because their ideas about striking women are linked to an assumed belief of entitlement. Some men associate marriage, culture and masculinity with a special liberty to handle their relationship troubles by whatever manner they chose. In addition, some men ancient traditional customs influenced their negative attitude towards women. For instance, abusive acts towards a woman was acceptable in some households. In other words, men complained about a women promiscuity so he hit her.
Multiple men entangled with the judicial system believed they were emasculated, humiliated and left powerless. They were confronted with the truth about their conduct and their explanation fell on death ears within the judicial system. Some individuals were removed from their household, family, society. To put an end to domestic violence many perpetrators were transported to jail. The judicial institution reinforced their intolerance for domestic violence. Perpetrators were forced to take anger management classes, although they resisted. Perpetrators were educated. They were given an opportunity to change. Most refused anger management courses. The judicial institution had the power to transform individuals. Both women and men conformed. Men were alienated from their family therefore they were left feeling feminized. The women were more independent depending on how much support they received from social programs. A victim’s autonomy was created from a tragic situation. The women were temporarily removed from their previous dependency on men. They were either self-governed or closely surveilled by social services. Women advocates and counselors conversed with multiple women about their rights. The man and the women appeared to have reversed roles. The women became head of the house, empowerment. Under close supervision from the courts the women coerced into testifying. She must conform to the judicial rules, she must give her testimony in the courts. Some victims oppose the legal demands yet they go along with the required governed procedure.
Individuals identity has shifted in multiple ways. The judicial institution has made either a positive law abiding citizen. Or a deviant individual who commits the same sort of crime again. All race, class and Both man and women from all different racial background and class has been affected by the constraints of judicial institution. The perpetrators and victims are different subjects. Their past identity has been extensively shattered. For instant, some women would have never imagined being the mother and the father to their child after the father was removed from the household. Some men could have never fathomed his wife would have testified against him. The making of a new identity.

Sally Engle Merry describes the subjective “self” as constantly changing and evolving. We hold multiple different identities at any given moment, and sometimes those identities conflict. Human life is a process of trying on and keeping or shedding different subjectivities. The ability for a woman to take action against an abusive spouse, and to even consider taking on a new legal subjectivity, as an individual with rights, shows that there has been a shift in the way we look at the public and private spheres, and masculinity. However, the way the attempts at this rights-based subjectivity plays out makes evident how far we still have to go in terms of equality. Taking on a legal subjectivity, where the source of her identity is the state, is a big shift for a woman. It will likely be in conflict with powerful subjectivities that are supported by her family and community, for example mother.

Merry describes the way the legal system produces subjectivities as being similar to the way Judith Butler describes gender – it’s the performance that creates it. The interaction with the law creates new modes of power, which produces new subjectivities. I’m frankly having trouble finding the words to explain what Merry was saying here, but I think I understand it. The law produces the the subject, but then it is through the interaction with the law that that subjectivity is confirmed, is I believe what she is getting at.

Merry brings up gender because gender plays so strongly into a person’s legal subjectivity. Gender effects the way a person is treated when calling on law enforcement for help, and as Merry has proven through her study, interactions from that moment forward shape a woman’s subjectivity legal identity as a rights-bearing person. The way law enforcement speaks to her, how seriously her claim is taken, punishment for the offender, whether or not the offender is arrested, all of these things impact the woman’s ability to accept the new subjectivity. Unfortunately gender plays an even stronger role, a woman is not truly a victim in the eyes of the law unless she is practically a perfect person. She can never have done drugs, fought back, or endangered her children in any way. The taking on of the new legal subjectivity also generates a lot of pushback typically, not just from law enforcement but from people in her personal life, especially the man who’s power is challenged.

In the article “Rights Talk and the Experience of Law” Sally Merry argues that rights are adopted by their identity mostly gender identity. “Gender is an identity which is performatively constituted by expressions” (351). Each gender rights can also be identified by encounters with the police, courts, judges and etc. she talks heavily about battered women and how they should speak up about their violent relationships to receive help. The human rights movement depends on the government to comply with the victims to advocate for the right to help these batter women. The battered women movement relies on criminal justice that encourage women to see their violations as a form of a crime and seek help from the legal system. But some battered women are slow to take action because they are scared of what might happen with their husbands. They are afraid that their husbands may kill them if they take them to court. So women are so afraid that they may back down and drop all charges or they may not want to testify against their husbands. They also fear the shift in subjectivity in the law. They may be called or seen differently by the law. By taking in these rights requires an identity change between both partners. The women will been seen as self protected by the state and the man will be seen as a criminal and controlled by the state.

All of the interactions with law can take on a new identity and sometimes favor the gender. A male police officer may fail to arrest a man for abuse because he may not think batter is something serious. This may discourage women of feeling like they have any rights. So the women must assert themselves so they can have some rights and not just be seen as battered women. There was an increase in cases of men beating on their wives which lead to an increase in seeking help from the law. Women that have been batter came together to help one another and develop a shelter to supper battered women.

Women taking actions by going to the law is being looked at as an exploration. Trying the system and hoping it won’t fail them. By going to the law these women must know the risks; a hostile and angry partner, and it Amy challenge the mans masculinity. When a women calls the police or press’s charges it opposes the power of his masculinity. These women are conflicted by using their rights to come forward about their violations or keeping their mouth shut and being a good wife. Unfortunately they can’t do both.

Some the the women Merry interviewed reported fears and anxieties about going to the courts. Some experienced hesitation for a long time before they went to court. After some women went to court they found the legal system supportive. When these women went to court they slowly stated to their dignity back and feel proud.

The men also was interviewed and they expressed that they felt angry and humiliated. Some felt that it was only one sided and everyone in the court was in the women side. Some wanted to know after so long of abuse their wives wanted to speak up now and that their behavior was not serious at all. Others found it to be life changing and very helpful they started to support their wives.

I think Merry means that identity can be produced through the legal system. For men they can been seen as being humiliated and a criminal. And for women they can been seen as a source of the humiliation and a battered women.

In “Rights Talk and the Experience of Law: Implementing Women’s Human Rights to Protection from Violence”, Sally Engle Merry examines how one begins to see their problems within the framework of human rights. Focusing on gender-based violence in romantic and familial relationships, Merry and her assistants interview a number of women and men on their experiences with law enforcement, the judicial system, and advocacy groups to illustrate how these interactions bring awareness, or does not, to their consciousness of human rights and their understanding of how rights are applicable to the violence they have experienced (or perpetrated).

The interviews take place in Hilo Hawai’i in the early 1990s, across a broad range of ethnicities but mostly within a lower rung of economic class. They find that the interactions with law enforcement and the judicial system greatly affect the victims’ ability to look at their selves and their situations through the lens of human rights. For example, in many cases, the police officers responding to domestic violence cases were either chummy with the attacker or dismissed the women’s complaints. The result was the woman believing that they were not entitled to protection. On the other hand, many of the judges in the examples given were supportive of the women, resulting in the women developing a sense of self which acknowledged that they were due protection under the umbrella of human rights.

While the above may seem like common sense – it seems evident to me that one’s interactions with law enforcement and the judicial system will affect how one views themselves in relation to the law and rights – Merry’s research and essay is quite interesting, as it is yet another example of the public versus private sphere and how the division affects the rights of women. Merry speaks to the women developing a new sense of self, one that is not necessarily defined by their relationships with their partners or families, rather one that is defined as a subject of the state, one that is owed protection. This transition moves the conversation around gender-based violence in the home from the private domain into the public domain, allowing not only visibility but protection.

Merry does touch on the economics of both the victims and the attackers throughout her paper and spends a small paragraph on how those with the resources have different experiences. It would be interesting to investigate this further. On the one hand, one may think that having additional resources would allow victims easier access to lawyers and assistance. On the other, Merry makes a point of recognizing that many of these cases remain private due to the financial resources on both sides. Given that the consciousness of rights is tied to the private/public sphere division, it would be rather interesting to further investigate the impact of keeping these cases private has on the women’s ability to view their situation through the lens of human rights.