The Human Rights Turn and the Paradox of Progress in the Middle East

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. The Human Rights Turn

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 3-17

   3. The Cultural Relativism Trap

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 19-32

   4. The Universality Test

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 33-51

   5. A Regional Rights Regime

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 53-74

3. Rights in Perspective

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-78

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   2. Egypt

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 79-106

   3. The United Arab Emirates

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 107-131

   4. The Islamic Republic of Iran

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 133-157

4. The Paradox of Progress

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

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   2. Conclusion

      • Mishana Hosseinioun

      Pages 161-177

5. Back Matter

   Pages 179-209

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This book aims to shift the limited and often negative popular understanding of the Middle East’s place in the world by chronicling the region’s contributions to the international order rather than disorder, and to the development of the international human rights system. It elucidates the many paradoxes that make the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region both a troubling place and also a region brimming with great potential for peace, prosperity and progress. By demonstrating the paradox of human rights progress amid regress, the book tells a radically new and more hopeful side of the story of the region that has largely been obfuscated and omitted from the chronicles of history. In so doing, it shows that fostering a human rights culture is not only possible for all universally, it is inevitable. 

• Liberalism
• Constitutionalism
• Democratization
• MENA
• human rights culture
• freedom
• universal human rights
• human rights instruments
• democracy

“Amidst all the gloom and doom that surround the Middle East today, it is refreshing to come across a serious scholar who is able to look at the bright side and offer sound reasons for hope. Dr. Hosseinioun’s focus is on human rights but she also places under an uncompromising lens many of the myths about the allegedly innate nature of authoritarianism in the region. Her book is deeply researched, rich in new information, highly original, thoughtful and thought-provoking. It deserves the attention of students, policy-makers, and the general public.” (Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, Oxford University, UK and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arabs)

“Hosseinioun's book is a provocative and timely challenge to all-too-common assumptions about the prospects for human rights progress in the Middle East. She shows that this region is characterized, not only by human rights violations, but by progress in the growth of human rights culture.  One of her majorcontributions is to demonstrate the contributions to human rights culture that Middle Easterners have made, both historically in the articulation of universal moral values and in the development of human rights doctrine and institutions since 1945.” (Allen Buchanan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law, Duke University, USA and author of The Heart of Human Rights)

“A book that is not only easily readable, but a thorough and scholarly work. Dr. Hosseinioun ‘debunks’ Western views about the incompatibility of Islam and its adherents with human rights. I enjoyed the book and believe others will, too.” (HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Saudi Arabia)

• Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  Mishana Hosseinioun

Mishana Hosseinioun is an International Relations and Middle East scholar at the University of Oxford, UK, and President of MH Group, a global consultancy specializing in high profile international legal and diplomatic case files before such platforms as the African Commission and Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court in the Hague. 

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