Monia Mazigh Reveals the Heart in Advocacy Writing
Monia Mazigh had never planned to become an author. She had a good career resulting from acquiring a PhD in Financial Economics at McGill University. She was happily married and raising her family. Then life took a tragic turn. She told her story on the first day of the Festival of Words and shared her hard-won advocacy experience.
Many Canadians followed what happened to her husband Mahar Arar. Arar was a telecommunications engineer, who held dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship. He had lived in Canada since 1987. In September of 2002, he was detained at John F. Kennedy airport while returning home from a family vacation in Tunisia. He was then, inexplicably, deported by the US to Syria, in what became known as ‘extraordinary rendition’.
Once in Syria, he was imprisoned and tortured for two years, until his release to Canada in 2004, after months of appeals by Monia Mazigh and a variety of Canadian and international human rights groups. Arar was cleared by a Canadian Commission of any action that could be connected to terrorism, and this case of mistaken identity reverberated throughout government agencies. In 2007, the RCMP were charged with misleading the public as well as the US authorities and offered a formal apology. Prime Minister Stephen Harper also apologized on behalf of the Canadian government. Arar, thanks to the persistence of his wife in mobilizing other advocacy groups, went on to be a Time magazine Newsmaker of the Year for 2004, and received the Council of Canadians Human Rights Award in 2005.
Monia Mazigh, too, had discovered her voice. She has written a memoir and many op-ed opinion pieces. “The government has the luxury to wait years before responding, while the advocates for justice have lives - children, partners, jobs, responsibilities. I remember one government employee saying of me that I had a lawyer but I did not have deep pockets. They were prepared to wait me out until I had no money left. And that is exactly what happened.”
Now she has written her first novel, Hope Has Two Daughters, about Muslim wom- en. It explores two critical uprisings in Tunisian history - the 1984 Bread Riots, and the 2010 Jasmine Revolution - told through the eyes of a mother and her daughter.
Her advice on advocacy: “Start with the personal. Make sure all your facts are accurate. Share your emotion and use whatever format you are good at (poetry, songs, journalism, prose). Stick to the truth, but do not be afraid to ask for the impossible.”