By examining the intentions
of Israeli and Palestinian groups,
both past and present, Lieberman
engaged in a conversation with
attendees, contemplating the future
of negotiations between the two
nations.
“From the 1990s to about 2014,
the two-state solution was the
official goal of the Israeli government
and the Palestinian Authority, the
PA,” Lieberman said. “Today most
commentators agree that the two-
state solution is on life support, if it’s
not dead completely. So what’s next?
How do Israelis and Palestinians
see the future, and what do they say
they want? In each case, what’s the
mix between rational thinking and
irrational impulse?”
Lieberman later expressed some
doubt that Israeli and Palestinian
groups will reach an agreement
regarding the ongoing land dispute
between the two nations, which

provoked a broad spectrum of
reactions from audience members.
LSA
freshman
Henry
Wolle
shared his own interpretation of
Lieberman’s words to The Daily after
the event, as well as some thoughts
about the issue.
“I take it that this professor
imagines the state of affairs as locked
in one way and his understanding
is both sides can’t come to a real
reconciliation,” Wolle said. “So,
that’s sort of where he bases his
speculation. That’s my understanding
of his presentation… I agree with the
frozen-ness that he presented, and I
recognize that from the conversations
that I’ve had with people.”
Following the lecture portion of
the event, Lieberman opened up the
floor for attendees to share their own
thoughts, ideas and questions. Orr
Viznitser, a Jewish Agency Israel
Fellow, added to the conversation
by sharing her personal beliefs and
experiences as an Israel native.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, April 4, 2019 — 3

MICHIGAN DAILY ALUMNI TALK

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Former Michigan Daily Editorial Page Editor Mark Dillen discusses his career in journalism and the foreign services in an
alumni talk held in the Paul Brentlinger Conference Room of the Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building Wednesday.

“It has been 18 years since the
war began … there is no end to
this war,” Sukhanyar said. “What
is going on? You don’t see any
sign of victory.”
Sukhanyar
also
addressed
problems regarding security in
Afghanistan. He said the lack
of training in Afghan security
forces causes the country to
suffer from external danger.
“The security is not improving,
it’s reversing,” Sukhanyar said.
“You don’t see any improvement
on the ground. Afghan security
forces lack resources, they’re not
as professional as international
forces … that means life is harder,
it’s more dangerous for us, for the
civilians.”
While reporting for the The
New York Times in Afghanistan,
Sukhanyar interviewed a man
later featured in The Times’
video “Injured and Abandoned in
Afghanistan.” The video features
a former Afghan police officer
who lost his leg, and his struggle
to survive on the streets of Kabul,
Afghanistan.
Sukhanyar said he first got into
contact with the man after he
noticed him begging for money in
the street while driving home. He
said he approached the man for
several consecutive days to ask
about what he was doing before
revealing he was a reporter and
requesting an interview.
According to Sukhanyar, the
man joined the police academy
in
which
American
troops
were involved. While training
in
southeastern
Afghanistan,
a bomb detonated on the man,
resulting in him and two of
his colleagues suffering severe
injuries. As result, the men were
unable to continue to work as
officers. After this happened, the
man’s family, including his wife
and two children, disowned him.
“This
young
Afghan
was
trained by the Americans, fought
in this war, and finally this is what
his life is,” Sukhanyar said. “He’s
living on the streets of Kabul, and
he’s (begging) during the evening

when it’s dark because he doesn’t
want to be seen by his friends and
by people that knew him.”
Sukhanyar also highlighted
another reporting experience
where he interviewed a man
whose young son was shot point-
blank by the Taliban.
“When I was talking to this
man, who himself was a warrior
during the Soviet division of
Afghanistan, he told me that
it’s very painful to lose his son,”
Sukhanyar said. “It’s very, very
horrible to lose his son … it was
very moving and emotional for
me.”
While discussing the future
of
Afghanistan,
Sukhanyar
said he does not know what
is coming. After he completes
his Knight-Wallace fellowship
at the University, Sukhanyar
said he plans to move back to
Afghanistan, despite the current
corruption in the country.
“I was hoping to go back to my
country, to live in my country,
even though I know it’s not
going to be as fun as I expect.,”
Sunhanyar said. “... I know living
here would be much, much better
for me, for my kids, they would
have a good future, but I don’t
want to close the door for other
Afghans who are working there.
They might get an opportunity to
come to programs like the one I
came and get a job.”
Bruce
Martin,
executive
director of International House
Ann Arbor, commented on the
importance of both telling and
listening to stories. He said he
thought it was important for
Americans to hear stories such
as Sukhanyar’s because what
the United States does in other
countries has a direct impact on
their lives.
“I always like to say to
people, we’re all about stories,
and everybody has a story,”
Martin said. “Everybody also
has a right to tell those stories
in their own voice and listen to
others’ stories. What they do
with that information is up to
them, but stories can be powerful
motivators, impact lives and
shape responses.”

“What
I
hope
you
will
leave with today is what is my
obligation to helping change to
helping this situation that we’re
in,” Abdelhoq said. “And also
you helping to understand in a
healthy way what masculinity
means.”
The first topic centered around
how masculinity has typically
been portrayed. They explained
academic writing on masculinity
has often been written by and
for white men and why this is
problematic
when
discussing
Arab masculinity.
“That
conversation
really
transitions and does a shift
when it comes to Arab men, and
this is also true for other men of
color,” Elharake said. “Even as I
think about myself, I was born
in Lebanon and immigrated here
when I was seven. Masculinity
looks very different in Lebanon.”

Abdelhoq
and
Elharake
then began discussing social
constructions
of
masculinity
and how they influence men’s
behavior.
They
described
three
categories:
hegemonic
masculinity,
the
traditional
stereotype
of
masculinity,
complicit
masculinity,
where
men receive the benefits of
masculinity, and marginalized
masculinity, where men are
given power based on their
gender while being marginalized
in other ways.
Abdelhoq said he believed
many men fit into the category
of complicit masculinity. He
said though they aren’t directly

perpetuating
inequality,
they
are still receiving the benefits of
their masculinity.
“My sense is that a lot of men
fall into this category,” he said.
“A lot of men don’t fit into all the
characteristics or all the defining
factors
of
what
hegemonic
masculinity looks like, but also
don’t challenge how they were
socialized.”
Abdelhoq also explained many
men of color are often unwilling
to stand up for women when
discussing issues of gender.
“A lot of times (for) men of color,
this discussion of community
will hinge on their marginalized
identity,” Abdelhoq said. “They
will really go to bat for people
when it comes to issues of race,
and then fall deadly silent when
it comes to issues of sexism.”
The event then transitioned to
how stereotypes of masculinity
are formed at a young age. The
presenters put a list of phrases
up on the screen that men
commonly hear and asked the
men in the audience to raise their
hands if they had ever received
the comment. When asked about
the phrase “man up,” every man
in the audience raised their hand.
They
also
discussed
how
traditional notions of masculinity
are perpetuated by “groupthink.”
They explained that though it’s
commonly assumed that men
act masculine for women, the
opposite is true; men often act
masculine around men to be
accepted.
Abdelhoq
and
Elharake
explained how Arab identity
interacts with both masculinity
and
femininity,
offering
examples of traditional gender
roles in Arab families.

“We see this even thinking
about our roles in our families
— who cooks, who cleans, who
eats where?” Elharake asked.
“At least in my experience, often
Arab men are allowed to go out
past a certain time and often
Arab women have to be back by
six or seven.”
Abdelhoq pointed out this
inequality has been made clear,
especially as progress is made
towards equality.
“There has been an uptick in
the need to reinforce traditional
values,” Adelhoq said. “Men’s
knee jerk response has been
to
re-establish
traditional
boundaries that perhaps some
movement has been made on.”
The event concluded with
interactive exercises. The first
asked the audience to choose
which of two men better fit the
mold of traditional masculinity
— those chosen included Russian
President Vladimir Putin, rapper
Meek Mill and Portuguese soccer
player Cristiano Ronaldo.
The
audience
was
also
prompted
to
guess
what
percentage of men surveyed
reported being uncomfortable
when the terms “bitch” and “slut”
were used in reference to women.
Though
audience
members
guessed five and 12 percent, the
answer was revealed to be 81.
When asked how one could
help challenge negative effects of
masculinity, both Abdelhoq and
Elharake provided input.
“Have the courage to say
something when and if it comes
up,” Abdelhoq said. “I think
inherently and intuitively you’re
going to know this when it
happens, it’s having the courage
to say something about it.”

Elharake
offered
similar
advice for students, both for
those who identify as Arab men
and those who do not.
“We think about spaces that
we’re in — small classrooms and
large ones — a lot of comments
are really thrown out that
promote or encourage this toxic
masculinity and behavior,” he
said. “And obviously I’m looking
at it through a larger lens, realize
how
that
impacts
everyone,
those who are men, and women,
and outside those binary genders
as well. It’s really important to
recognize masculinity has an
impact on everyone.”
Business
graduate
student
Rajiv
Khattar
attended
the
event, and in an interview
with
The
Daily
after
the
event he commented on the
importance of understanding
intersectionality
when
discussing masculinity.
“When we just look at
masculinity there’s a lot we
could talk about,” Khattar
said. “Then we talk about
the
Arab
identity,
there’s
a lot we could talk about.
Then we add mental health.
It’s understanding all these
individual identities take on a
slightly different flavor with
the other ones is important.”
When explaining why he
came to the event Khattar
discussed the lack of visibility
this topic receives.
“I
thought
it
was
an
interesting
event,”
Khattar
said.
“The
intersection
of
masculinity and mental health
from a person of color lens
isn’t exactly something we see
a lot.”

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

MASCULINITY
From Page 1

JOURNALIST
From Page 1

alone in this fight,” Schouman
said.
LSA senior Sabrina Angel
volunteers for University Stu-
dents Against Rape and became
involved with the group after
coming to TBTN her freshman
year.
“I’m a survivor myself, so
this has really been an organi-
zation which helped me kind
of come to terms with my story
and really be able to support
others who had the same kind
of experience I had,” Angel
said. “It means a lot to me that
I get to support other people,
especially because I didn’t feel
like I had a support system until
I came to Take Back the Night.”
Angel said she appreciates
the refreshing positivity of
TBTN.
“This event is not really
about sadness or dwelling on
experiences of the past,” Angel
said. “We’re here to support
the growth that survivors have
achieved.”
TBTN is a national organi-
zation that started when Cali-
fornian sex workers decided
to protest their working condi-
tions. Kozlowski explained the
tradition as being purposefully
radical and disruptive.
“It’s going into the streets,
being like, ‘We’re out here.
We’re loud. We’re going into

the streets. We’re taking back
the night,’” Kozlowski said.
Kozlowski said TBTN Ann
Arbor is unique because it exists
at an intersection between
campus and community activ-
ism. Community organizer Pam
Swider, director of STARS, first
became involved with TBTN
Ann Arbor 11 years ago.
“I am a survivor myself, and I
wanted to do something to give
back,” Swider said. “When I was
going through therapy, Take
Back the Night was important
to me so I always kind of imag-
ined participating.”
Swider believes TBTN Ann
Arbor is strengthened by the
constant presence of certain
community
members
which
complements
the
transient
nature of student leaders as
they periodically graduate and
move away.
“I think it’s important to see
that the community cares and
that they can come together to
help,” Swider said.
This year’s TBTN event was
“Uplifting Voices.” Organizers
made an effort over the years
to showcase intersectionality
in the event. Swider said this
year, TBTN’s theme attempts
to reflect an increased sense of
inclusion.
“We want to recognize that
we can’t know everything, but
we want to celebrate everyone,”
Kozlowski said.
Schouman said she hopes
efforts to combat sexual assault

will expand as the variety
of those identities which are
actively welcomed into spaces
such as TBTN increases.
“We’re trying to have an air
of inclusivity,” Schouman said.
“...It’s obviously not a just a
women’s issue, it’s obviously
not just a white person’s issue,
like bringing everybody into
that space.”
Schouman
discussed
the
power the march has to spread
its message throughout the
community.
“People will stare at you but
there’s also people that will
applaud you going by,” Schou-
man said. “If they find out
that this is what it’s for, they
might get angry, or they might
be like ‘Oh I didn’t know this
was something we had in Ann
Arbor’ and like it can spark that
sort of interest … It’s definitely
about causing a disturbance to
start a conversation.”
The event’s keynote speaker
was Internet performer, poet
and actor Kevin Kantor. Kan-
tor shared their experience as
a queer victim of sexual assault.
Kantor appreciated how TBTN
Ann Arbor made a special
effort to recognize the stories
of non-female sexual assault
survivors.
“This is what I like,” Kantor
said. “This is the unity.”
Kantor encouraged survivors
to be “selfish” in their recovery
and said people are more than
their survivorship.

“You deserve joy,” Kantor
said. “You deserve your rage.
Get to work.”
Throughout the night, speak-
ers echoed a repeated call to
action. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
recorded a video for the rally
to be played in her absence, in
which she encouraged attend-
ees to also “get to work.”
LSA freshman Chloe Carl-
son attended the event as an
ally with sisters from the Uni-
versity’s feminist sorority, Zeta
Omega Eta. She said there is
still a lot of work to be done
through the feminist move-
ment.
“I feel like it’s gotten better,
then it’s gotten worse,” Carlson
said.
Schouman also emphasized
the importance of involving as
many people as possible in the
cause.
“Whether you have a story,
or not, whether you’ve told your
story before, or you haven’t, or
if you’re even just an ally just to
be here and to celebrate survi-
vors and taking a stand against
sexual assault...we’re glad that
you’re here,” Schouman said.
Engineering
junior
Rosie
Van Alsburg, also a member of
Zeta Omega Eta, hopes she and
her sisters’ presence will show
survivors they have support on
campus.
“I hope just being here will
let survivors know that we’re
here for them,” Van Alsburg
said.

RALLY
From Page 1

“I think it’s a really good way
to share your culture with people
because there are a lot of things
people don’t know and people
just assume things,” Seward said.
“It was interesting, I like to hear
from other people’s perspectives
because so many people just make
assumptions about others.
According to Haidar, helping
attendees feel comfortable asking
questions was critical to creating
productive dialogue.
“I’ve already engaged in some
good conversations,” Haidar said.
“I try to break the ice by starting
off with questions that may seem
ridiculous but i’ve gotten like oh
are you bald, and I tell them no,
or do you shower with that on,
like no. I feel like it cracks the ice
because once you start with the
dumbest questions it goes on from
there.”
According to Business senior
Mohammad Shaikh, the series of
events was previously titled their
Islamic Awareness week, Shaikh
said the change came from their
desire to have more hands-on and
engaging conversations with the

Muslim community on campus.
“Beyond just raising awareness
— while that is important — we’re
trying to get people to actually
not just be aware of what Islam
is but actually engage with it,”
Shaikh said. “In the past it was
called Islamic Awareness Week,
but we intentionally changed it to
engagement week so people can
engage with Muslims and their
contributions to society at large.”
Syed said he hopes the engag-
ing conversations will continue
outside the conversations had at
the table.
“I feel like usually these kind
of events are very successful, but
the problem is after they happen
it kind of just goes back to nor-
mal, people don’t ask questions
anymore,” Syed said. “What’s’
actually really unfortunate some-
times is I feel like other Muslims
don’t actually ask other Muslims,
by different denominations, they
sometimes don’t ask questions
that they should be. I feel like
those are conversations we need
to start having more on campus,
especially to be more inclusive
like we try to promote here at the
University of Michigan.”

MEET
From Page 1

POLITICS
From Page 1