The current condition of the world–brutal wars, extrajudicial killings, genocide–has its roots, Monia Mazigh argues, in the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York. A new world was ushered in, when governments openly violated international law in their “war on terror.” In particular, Muslims of various countries were abducted on mere suspicion or whim by America and its collaborating allies and detained to face tortures in so-called secret black sites. Torture was justified by politicians and intellectuals, it was no longer a medieval practice carried out in “backward” countries but an interrogation norm in the West. Monia Mazigh’s husband, Maher Arar, was one innocent citizen who was abducted and shipped to a dungeon in Syria and tortured. Mazigh describes her own and her family’s ordeal of several years in trying to get Maher Arar finally released.

“National security is too often discussed without hearing from the people whose lives it has shattered. Monia Mazigh makes us listen. In Hope and Despair, she recounts the anguish of raising two young children while fighting to bring her husband, Maher Arar, home from imprisonment and torture. Her account exposes the distance between Canada’s human rights promises and the conduct of its institutions, and the persistence required to force those institutions to answer. An essential book about courage, love, and the human cost of allowing fear to override justice.”

— Faisal Kutty, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School; Associate Professor of Law Emeritus, Valparaiso University; Affiliate Faculty, Rutgers University Center for Security, Race & Rights

“Monia Mazigh’s updated edition of Hope and Despair brims over with the clarity, conviction and belief in humanity that galvanized so many people to rally to her side in the troubling and lawless aftermath of 9/11. Twenty-five years later, pointing to stark examples such as genocide in Gaza and the brutal treatment of migrants in the United States, she lays out the many ways that her warnings have come to pass. But all is not despair. With her characteristic hopefulness, Monia reminds us that we hold the responsibility, and also the power, to push back. Ordinary people do just that every day; and little by little we can and do prevail.”

— Alex Neve, Professor of International Human Rights, former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, and CBC Massey Lecturer