Feminist Scholars to Obama: Drop Charges Against Palestinian Survivor of Sexxual Torture

Between 1969-1979, Rasmea Odeh served ten years in an Israeli prison. Her sentence was based on a confession she made in the midst of 45 days of sexual and physical torture while in detention. Following her release, she was exiled from her Palestinian homeland and eventually immigrated to the United States from Jordan in 1994 as a legal resident where she tried to put her memories of torture behind her. She later became a naturalized citizen.

In the US, Rasmea settled in Chicago where she became the associate director of the Arab American Action Network, a social service and community organization. There, she established the Arab Women’s Committee, a grassroots collective that promotes leadership among Arab immigrant women, challenges systems of oppression that impact Arab women’s lives and secures a positive and safe political, economic, social, and cultural environment for Arab women and their communities. In 2013, the Chicago Cultural Alliance granted Rasmea its Outstanding Community Leader Award in recognition of her devotion of “over forty years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women.”

Now, Rasmea is being persecuted again for not giving account of her time in jail after her torture 45 years ago on her naturalization application in 2004.

On 22 October 2013, the US Department of Justice arrested Rasmea Odeh at her home in the Chicago Suburbs. The Department of Justice alleges that Odeh failed to disclose on her naturalization application that she had served time in Israeli jail – even though her sentence was based on a confession she made in the midst of weeks of torture. Rasmea faces up to ten years in US prison, fines up to $250,000 and potential deportation and de-naturalization.

The Israeli state avoids any blame for the politically motivated abuse and imprisonment of Rasmea. The criminal charges she faces for alleged immigration fraud in the US are also politically motivated. They are based upon naturalization papers she filed ten years ago in 2004 and sprang from an illegal federal investigation of 23 Palestinian and anti-war activists that violates First Amendment rights.

They are also connected to a long history of federal authorities using fear and repression to silence Palestinian-American activists and intimidate immigrant women from participating in social justice movements.

Rasmea Odeh has suffered enough already. When the Israeli military arrested her, they also arrested her family members shortly after her arrest and destroyed her family’s home. Odeh’s 1969 conviction in Israel was determined by a court system that systematically abuses Palestinians’ due process rights, has a record of torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian women, men, and children, and convicts Palestinians at a rate of 99.74 percent.

As feminist scholars, we call on the Department of Justice to drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh. We extend our deepest support to Rasmea in the face of injustice. We recognize her as a leader in the international struggle to empower women and end violence against women. We recognize the pain and suffering she endured in Israeli prisons and we honor her for testifying before a United Nations Committee in Geneva as a survivor of sexual torture.

We honor her decades of feminist activism on behalf of Arab and Muslim immigrant women living in poverty in Chicago. Rasmea built the Arab Women’s Committee and its base of nearly six hundred Arab immigrant women from scratch when she went door to door as a recent immigrant herself and made phone calls to households with Arabic names from the white pages.

She developed an infrastructure for disenfranchised Arab immigrant and refugee women to obtain social services and support and she established English as a second language courses through which immigrant women perform plays, write their immigration stories and form deep friendships, sisterhood, and solidarity.

Because of Rasmea’s work, immigrant and refugee women who came to the US from countries facing war and political crises – like Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Syria, and beyond – now have a place to seek support, gain empowerment and community and call their home.

Rasmea’s story encompasses some of the most urgent feminist struggles of our times – violence against women and the use of sexual violence as a tool of colonization and war; the impact of racism and anti-immigrant policies upon women; the criminalization of women of color; and the use of intimidation to thwart feminist activism.

Rasmea’s trial is set to begin 4 November 2014, in Detroit, Michigan.

We call upon all feminist movements to stand with gender justice and centralize Rasmea Odeh’s struggle within all of our movements.

We call upon President Obama and the United States Department of Justice to drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh.

1. Sarah Abboud, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
2. Stéphanie Latte Abdallah, Researcher, CNRS (IFPO)
3. Diya Abdo, Associate Professor, Guilford College
4. Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University
5. Lila Abu-Lughod, Professor, Columbia University
6. Fida J. Adely, Associate Professor, Georgetown University
7. Jocelyn Ajami
8. Nadje Al-Ali, Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
9. Dina Al-Kassim, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
10. Deborah Al-Najjar, University of Southern California
11. Lori Allen, Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
12. Paul Amar, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
13. Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
14. Barbara Aswad, Professor Emerita, Wayne State University
15. Sa’ed Atshan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University
16. Elsa Auerbach, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston
17. Kathryn Babayan, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
18. Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
19. Joanne Barker, Professor, San Francisco State University
20. Janet Bauer, Associate Professor, Trinity College
21. Leila Ben-Nasr, Ohio State University
22. Sherna Berger-Gluck, California State University, Long Beach
23. Amahl Bishara, Assistant Professor, Tufts University
24. Elizabeth Bishop, Associate Professor, Texas State University
25. Jennifer Brier, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
26. Victoria Brittain, Journalist and Author
27. L.M. San Pablo Burns, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
28. Louise Cainkar, Associate Professor, Marquette University
29. Piya Chatterjee, Scripps College
30. Julia Chinyere Oparah, Professor, Mills College
31. Andreana Clay, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University
32. Maria Cotera, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
33. Ephrosine Daniggelis
34. Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emirita, University of California, Santa Cruz
35. Lara Deeb, Professor, Scripps College
36. Christine Taitano DeLisle, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign
37. Gina Dent, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
38. Lisa Duggan, Professor, New York University
39. Zillah Eisenstein, Distinguished Feminist Scholar, Ithaca College
40. Omnia El Shakry, Associate Professor, University of California, Davis
41. Nada Elia, Independent Scholar
42. Hoda Elsadda, Professor, Cairo University
43. Anita Fábos, Associate Professor, Clark University
44. Roderick Ferguson, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
45. Ellen Fleischmann, Professor, University of Dayton
46. Cynthia Franklin, Professor, University of Hawai’i
47. Rosa Linda Fregoso, Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
48. Nancy Gallagher, Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
49. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York
50. Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita Faculty, California State University, Long Beach
51. Layla Azmi Goushey, Assistant Professor, St. Louis Community College
52. Marame Gueye, Associate Professor, East Carolina University
53. Elena Gutiérrez, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
54. Elaine C. Hagopian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College
55. Sondra Hale, Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
56. Hala Halim, Associate Professor, New York University
57. Najla Hamadeh, Independent Researcher
58. Michelle Hartman, Associate Professor, McGill University
59. Nadia Hijab, Author and Human Rights Advocate
60. Grace Kyungwon Hong, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
61. LeAnne Howe, Professor, University of Georgia
62. Constantine Inglessis
63. Jacqueline Khayat Inglessis
64. Joyce Inglessis
65. Bushra Jabre, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
66. Lynette Jackson, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
67. Amira Jarmakani, Associate Professor, Georgia State University
68. Suad Joseph, Distinguish Research Professor University of California, Davis
69. Mohja Kahf, Professor, University of Arkansas
70. Ronak Kapadia, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
71. J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Associate Professor, Wesleyan University
72. Laleh Khalili, Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies
73. Sharon Heijin Lee, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, New York University
74. Pardis Mahdavi, Associate Professor, Pomona College
75. Lisa Suhair Majaj, Writer and Editor
76. Jean Said Makdisi, Writer
77. Harriet Malinowitz, Lecturer, Ithaca College
78. Rania Masri, Associate Director, American University of Beirut
79. Victor Mendoza, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
80. Hasna Mikdashi, Arab Women’s Studies and Research, NOUR, Cairo
81. Maya Mikdashi, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers University
82. Minoo Moallem, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
83. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Syracuse University
84. Scott L. Morgensen, Associate Professor, Queen’s University
85. Norma Claire Moruzzi, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
86. Susan Muaddi Darraj
87. Nadine Naber, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
88. Margo Okazawa-Rey, Professor Emerita, San Francisco State University
89. Jennifer Olmsted, Professor, Economics, Drew University
90. Geeta Patel, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
91. Suvendrini Perera, Professor, Curtin University
92. Jasbir Puar, Associate Professor, Rutgers University
93. Michelle Raheja, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
94. Aneil Rallin, Associate Professor, Soka University of America
95. Barbara Ransby, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
96. Robin L. Riley, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University
97. Eleanor Roffman, Professor Emerita, Lesley University
98. Judy Rohrer, Assistant Professor, Western Kentucky University
99. Rachel Rubin, Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston
100. Rosemary Sayigh, Researcher and Visiting Professor, Center for Arab and Middle East Studies, American University of Beirut.
101. Susan Schaefer Davis, Independent Scholar
102. Laurie Schaffner, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
103. Malini Johar Schueller, Professor, University of Florida
104. Sarita See, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
105. May Seikaly, Associate Professor, Wayne State University
106. Sima Shakhsari, Assistant Professor, Wellesley College
107. Simona Sharoni, Professor, State University of New York, Plattsburgh
108. Setsu Shigematsu, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
109. Irene Siegel, Assistant Professor, Hofstra University
110. Andrea Smith, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
111. Samera Sood
112. Ahdaf Soueif, writer
113. Rajini Srikanth, Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston
114. Maria Francesca Stamuli, National Library of Naples
115. Neferti X. M. Tadiar, Professor, Barnard College
116. Kim TallBear, Associate Professor, University of Texas, Austin
117. Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
118. Miriam Ticktin, Associate Professor, The New School for Social Research
119. Judith E. Tucker, Professor, History, Georgetown University
120. Karyn Valerius, Associate Professor, Hofstra University
121. Sherry Vatter, California State University, Long Beach
122. Maurice L. Wade, Professor, Trinity College
123. Lee Ann Wang, Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii
124. Jessica Winegar, Associate Professor, Northwestern University
125.