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  • Citizenship and Human Rights
  • Suzanne Strickland (bio)
Sigrun Norderval and Gard A. Andreassen’s Dishonored, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Icarus Films, 2008
Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem’s Enemies of Happiness, New York: Women Make Movies, 2006
Larry Rich and Gayla Jamison’s Lives for Sale: A Documentary on Immigration and Human Trafficking, Ossining, N.Y.: Maryknoll Productions/Lightfoot Films, 2007

These three documentaries depict the challenge of building modern nation-states through the efforts of strong indigenous leaders in countries racked with political and economic instability.

Modern nation-states with economic and political stability are critical to America’s security. However, stability in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan require tribal cooperation and participation. Yet, ethnic tribes can lose power and basis as the forces of modernity—seen as “Western” by many tribal leaders—ignore, repress, and condemn tribal custom. That is the conundrum America faces: how to build a modern state amid tribes that could have more to lose than to gain. The Russians imposed Marxism on Afghanistan to steer it towards modernity and away from “warlords” and tribal custom. When persuasion failed, the Russians murdered a million Afghans and caused the defection of Afghanistan’s middle class, upwards of five million people. Marxism failed. Tribal custom is stronger than ever.

Solving this puzzle demands a careful choreography, not overwhelming force. What makes it worse is systemic state failure that strengthens tribal customs that impede the development of a modern nation-state. In a failed state, tribal custom often serves as a proxy for weak or collapsed economic and political institutions. Dismantling it quickly without a strong replacement leaves a large void.

Furthermore, a Western state building perspective often demonizes tribal practices and leaders (e.g. our sound biting tribal leaders with terms like “warlord”). The intent is to marginalize tribal and ethnic leaders. This [End Page 350] strategy is unilaterally unsuccessful as it antagonizes the groups needed for success. State building demands indigenous leaders to engage, and where appropriate, confront tribal mores while working on the economic and institutional reforms that will eventually weaken many tribal practices as economic and institutional reforms emerge.

The first two documentaries vividly illustrate the push-pull of nation-building by featuring the political work of two indigenous leaders, one in Pakistan, the other in Afghanistan. Both documentaries depict women who confront the strength of tribal customs and their role in trying to steer these countries into modernity by bridging the gap between strong tribal mores and larger social and economic reform.

The Pakistani woman featured in the first documentary effectively spearheads change in Pakistan’s legal system using her own rape case to spawn reform. Her legal victory further encourages her to build schools in the rural area with a belief that education will alter the beliefs fostered by tribal custom. She makes a decision to embark on the long political struggle to build the institutions and engage the political process to initiate change.

The Afghan politician in the second film is less successful. She dismisses tribal and parliamentary leaders and local custom, and as a result she is disenfranchised and eventually stripped by the Afghan Parliament of her seat. Instead of becoming a mediating instrument in building a modern nation state she envisioned, she is stripped of her official influence.

The third documentary—filmed in Central America and the U.S border—depicts the objectionable by-products of failed states throughout Central America by illustrating the irrefutable truth. Failed economies fuel immigration and human trafficking and all of the sordid consequences for those who choose to leave these countries to pursue the “American Dream.” Filmmakers illustrate another model of nation building—indigenous leaders who immigrate to America, achieve important freedoms, and use their vantage point to pressure their oppressive homelands into economic and social reform.

All three documentary films depict the stories of remarkable, courageous women promoting change in their society—against all odds. They live in war-ravaged nations with the resulting collapsed institutions that confront our Western perspective of justice, economic participation, and politics. [End Page 351]

The stories abruptly shift with each of the central characters’ decision to assert control over an all-but-certain destiny and...

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