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Somaly Mam VS Norma Khouri
Paradoxical biographical impostures in the post-truth era.
Clara Sitbon
The University of Sydney
POST-TRUTH
"Now, clever people that we are, we have come up with rationales for tampering with the truth so we can dissemble guilt-free. I call it post-truth. We live in a post-truth era."
Ralph Keyes, The Post-Truth Era : Dishonesty and Deception in contemporary life. St Martin’s Press, New York (2004, 12-13).
HOAXES
re-information
INTOX
HOAXES
FAKE NEWS
misinformation
Alternative facts
post-truth
disinformation
The post-truth era
- enkidles a craving for authenticity
=> leads to fabrication of testimonies
The post-truth era
"victim literature"
BIOGRAPHICAL IMPOSTURE
Norma Khouri
The story of Dalia and Norma
Forbidden Love
(2003)
Forbidden Love
A crusader against honour killings
"Norma shot a well-placed arrow, right at the collective heart."
"Norma shot a well-placed arrow, right at the collecti...
in "Forbidden Lie$", dir. Anna Broinowski (2007)
David Leser
An "activist" under scrutiny
Dr. Amal Sabbagh
Secretary General
Jordan National Committee for Women
An "activist" under scrutiny
Rana Husseini
(2009)
Journalist
Specialist of the question of Honour Killings in the Middle East
"Her life as fake"
Best-Seller's lies exposed
Malcolm Knox
Journalist
The Sydney Morning Herald
"Her life as fake"
"Her life as fake: bestseller's lies exposed"
The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 2004
A blurry identity ?
Norma Majed Albaqa'een Thouliopolis
- Born in Jordan
- Moved to the United States with her family at age 4
- Married to John Thouliopolis, with 2 children
A blurry identity ?
- Con-artist: under investigation by FBI for
- fraud
- embezzlement
- insurance scams
Bridging the gap between two biographical impostures
Two standard-bearers for humanitarian justice
Norma Khouri
Somaly Mam
Two standard-bearers for humanitarian justice
Honour-Killings in Jordan
Child prostitution and sex-trafficking in South-East Asia
Position of witness
Position of martyr/survivor
Status asserted and confirmed by the victim narrative in (auto)biographical form
Marketizing Victim Literature
Somaly Mam
Marketizing Victim Literature
Norma Khouri
Biographical imposture
- subcategory of literary hoax theory
- epitomizes the link between "victim literature" and literary hoaxes
Biographical imposture
- hinges on "faction"
- bears tremendous consequences on authorship
Biographical imposture's dilemma
- ethical dilemma of biographical impostures linked with humanitarian issues
- How can we categorise such situations as hoaxes ?
Biographical imposture's dilemma
Can lies, instrumentalisation and manipulation be excused simply because the broader action has merit ?
- Social and political repercussions of these hoaxes
the victimisation issue
A fainted resolution?
A fainted resolution?
Somaly Mam
- closed the Somaly Mam Fondation and the AFESIP (Agir pour les FEmmes en SItuation Précaire)
Somaly Mam
- did not try to justify herself of to explain her actions.
- disappeared without a trace
Norma Khouri
"I will never say that Dalia didn't exist and I will never say that this is a made-up story because it's not."
in Broinowski, 2007, 35:17)
Norma Khouri
David Leser
Australia's Women Weekly (March 2007:44)
"Forbidden Lie$"
Documentary
Directed by Anna Broinowski
(2007)
A glimpse in post-truth
Middle East Inc. :
"A commodified, packageable, saleable image of the Middle East that Western readers were hungry to know about."
Middle East Inc. :
in Rooney, 2009, 13 130.
Anna Broinowski
POST-TRUTH
The Unstable Truth