Tag: civil rights

Roundtable Discussion on How to Heal From Racial Trauma in the Workplace [AALS]

On January 5, 2022, Sahar Aziz joined an expert roundtable at the Association of American Law Schools to discuss how the myriad forms of discrimination, ranging from microaggressions to racial slurs, experienced by women impact their careers and mental health. Professor Aziz offered insights based on her research about the triple bind faced by Muslim women, published in her article Coercive Assimilationism: The Perils of Muslim Women’s Identity Performance in the Workplace.… Continue reading “Roundtable Discussion on How to Heal From Racial Trauma in the Workplace [AALS]”
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Security, Race, and Rights [The Maydan]

As the 20th anniversary of September 11 reminds us of personal tragedy as well as structural violence of the state, The Maydan Podcast editor-in-chief Ahmet Tekelioglu hosts Sahar Aziz, a legal scholar, an expert on critical race theory, and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at  Rutgers University Law School. She is the author of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom published with the University of California Press in November 2021. Tekelioglu and Aziz also speak about the impact of 9/11 on legal… Continue reading “Security, Race, and Rights [The Maydan]”
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How 9/11 Changed American Muslims’ Relationship with Religious Freedom [Deseret News]

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the course of Sahar Aziz’s career. Before the planes crashed and the buildings collapsed, she’d planned to finish law school and move to the Middle East to do pro-democracy work. After, she still wanted to be a lawyer, but she set her sights on civil rights work much closer to home. For Aziz and many other Muslims, 9/11 was a wake-up call about not just the fragility of life, but also the fragility of America’s constitutional protections. In the months and years… Continue reading “How 9/11 Changed American Muslims’ Relationship with Religious Freedom [Deseret News]”
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The Power of Language in Combating Islamophobia [ACS]

Twenty years ago, America experienced the worst terrorist attack in its history, triggering a “War on Terror” against Muslim communities. Today, our nation is undergoing a moment of racial reckoning. Tens of millions of Americans, especially our youth, are recognizing that systemic racism is pervasive. Their attempts to upend such systems offers an important insight: words matter. How we describe a particular act can skew public opinion in support of government programs designed to subordinate specific minority communities. Take the word terrorist, for example. For the 97 percent of Americans… Continue reading “The Power of Language in Combating Islamophobia [ACS]”
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy of Empathy and Courage [Al Jazeera]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life embodies the best of America. Her experiences of being a first-generation American, a religious minority, and a woman who overcame discrimination informed her jurisprudence. The grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Ginsburg understood how fear of violent pogroms caused her family to leave their home, along with hundreds of thousands of Jews who immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. She also appreciated the hope for a better life America offers its constant stream of newcomers. Despite the discrimination she faced, America was… Continue reading “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Legacy of Empathy and Courage [Al Jazeera]”
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Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency to build a wall. Is that legal? [PBS Newshour]

Emergency powers are usually used to address political crises in other nations such as the systemic violation of human rights, war, or a serious threat of abuse of weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons, said Sahar F. Aziz, director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School in an email to PBS NewsHour. For example, Aziz said, emergency powers were invoked in response to opposition to stabilization efforts in the Balkans in 1997 and the wars in Syria and Yemen in 2012. The president doesn’t… Continue reading “Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency to build a wall. Is that legal? [PBS Newshour]”
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We Got Government Data on 20 Years of Workplace Sexual Harassment Claims [Buzzfeed]

The Harvey Weinstein scandal shows that a skewed power dynamic can allow a few powerful “gatekeepers” in “high-stakes” industries to behave inappropriately toward others without being called out, said Sahar Aziz, a law professor at Rutgers University who was part of the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace. In these industries, she said, the fear of being blacklisted may prevent victims of sexual harassment from speaking up. The current public discussion is focused on industries like entertainment, media, and politics — rife with… Continue reading “We Got Government Data on 20 Years of Workplace Sexual Harassment Claims [Buzzfeed]”
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