After some years in the private sector, eventually working in a managerial role at a legal technology company, I decided to return to where I found the most meaning: in academia. I completed a second Master of Laws degree at Osgoode Hall Law School, for which I received numerous scholarships, and my thesis was subsequently nominated for the Best Dissertation Prize. Since the commencement of my doctoral studies, I have presented at international conferences, conducted German-language research for a SSHRC-funded project on colonial genocide, which I also co-authored a report on, and I have a forthcoming chapter with UCL Press on a post-colonial reimagining of enslavement in international criminal law.
My pursuit of scholarship is deeply shaped by my experiences as a Kurdish refugee. I therefore approach my academic endeavours with an awareness of the tension between the letter of the law and the everyday realities of peoples. I have extensive experience as a rights advocate, and advisor working with refugees, as well as with women who have been subject to honour-based violence.
Research
The archives of international law reveal that, during its formative period, certain conditions of slavery that affected primarily women of the Global South were attributed to either cultural custom or practices restrictive of liberty. The prevailing definition of slavery in international law today mirrors this approach and is therefore restrictive to gendered manifestations of slavery. Where severe forms of subjugation are considered as akin to conditions of enslavement, they are commonly characterized as modern-day slavery, rather than a historically (and legally) recognized condition of slavery proper, resulting in the lack of legislative protections under jus cogens status.
My research investigates the historical development of the prohibition of slavery and slavery-like practices in international law. Focusing on the marginalization of violence against women in the Global South, I engage with alternative legal methods to explore how and why particular forms of subjugation have been excluded from mainstream efforts to regulate slavery. These legacies are explored through case studies of forced marriage, domestic labor, and human trafficking. The dissertation attempts to identify the thread that has woven its influence into the conceptualization of each practice as distinct from a condition of enslavement, with a focus on the colonial essence that has moulded definitions and generated discourse and meaning around these practices. It seeks to understand how and why this fracture emerged and, more specifically, how it relates to ideological, economic, and other interests that underpinned the League of Nations, and subsequently, the United Nations' humanitarian efforts in codifying these crimes or attendant rights.