In Phase IV of our investigation, we examine the genocide in Darfur. These are our questions about the genocide in Darfur:
What keeps the Arab Muslims and African Muslims so apart? They are both from the same religion so shouldn't they have an easier time getting along or are the difference based on their cultures opposed to their religions?
Were the "genocidaires" of this genocide the Arab Muslims?
Why was circumcision necessary for Halima and her peers?
Does Halima attribute her survival from the genocide to her grandma for teaching her how to be tough?
What is Halima's reasoning for taking so long to set the stage for the genocide opposed to Kenan and Luong who only briefly explained the buildup to the genocide?
Does her family survive?
-Justin Rink
Why does the term hijab mean such a different thing in this culture? What other differences are there between this Muslim culture and the Arabian Muslim culture?
Why is scarring so significant and popular in this culture, aside from what the author tells us?
Why did Halima fight so hard against having her face cut like her mother and grandmother, when before she had thought their scars were beautiful? What changed her mind?
Why did Halima's white eyelash getting pulled cause so much trouble for her? What causes people to have white eyelashes like hers and why exactly is it considered to be lucky?
Why did the tradition of circumcision of girls (especially the kind that Halima went through) develop? What made people decide to cut so much off of women and why did they decide to keep doing it? Why did Halima's father allow her to experience it when he knows so much more about the world?
-Elise Troemel
What is the history behind the scaring? Why was it such an important practice?
What was the purpose of the detailed description of female circumcision? Is this foreshadowing other events?
If the circumcision was such a special ritual, why didn't they prepare her for the pain she would face?
How did rape play a role in this genocide? Where these woman still seen as unmarriageable since they would no longer be virgins?
-Shannon Manzella
Did the radio play any role in this genocide - either inciting genocide or deceiving the international community?
Was the genocide prompted by social status and financial success or was it purely rooted in ethnic conflict between tribes?
Aside from play fights among children, was there a culture or history of violence in Darfur?
How did international interference or aid play a part in the events that occurred in Darfur?
Was gendercide an element of the Darfur genocide?
How does women's role in this culture's society play into their treatment during the genocide?
Were boarding schools and children of well-to-do families targeted?
-Emily Longman
Why is scaring so important? Is this similar to an I.D. card like we saw in Rwanda? Do other tribes have different ways of identifying themselves?
Is there no education in the area or if there is is it primitive? Does education have a direct relationship with the occurrence of genocide?
Is there no enforcement/encouragement to attend school because there is no "need" for the children to attend?
Does wealth have anything to do with surviving genocides?
- Allie Back
How does Halima feel about her circumcision now that she is older?
Will her father's and her family's socioeconomic status affect their experience in the genocide?
Is it more common for girls to get a better education rather than boys, or is Halima's experience different than others?
A radio and a car were signs of higher status in the village. How prevalent was technology in this area and time?
-Sierra Pool
-Does tribal tradition (scarring, female circumcision, etc.) play a role in Darfur's genocide? How do the traditions aimed towards children affect them later in their adult lives (infection, prejudice, etc.)?
-Why does Bashir not discuss the genocide in Darfur in the first part of her book? What factors caused the genocide?
-Did the genocide occur in larger towns like where Bashir attends school, or did it affect the entire country including the village where she grew up?
-Do ancestry and tribal pride play any role in Darfur's genocide?
Danielle Howard
In the beginning of the novel, Hamlima mentions rape. What role did rape play in this genocide?
Why was Hamlima's Grandma so adimit about Hamlima's circumcision? What importance does this serve?
Many children in the village did not have what we would consider a proper education. What is the average education of the people living in Darfur? Has this changed over the years?
Hamlima was reluctant to many of the tradtions of her tribe. How did this affect her standing in soceity? In her family?
~Jen Pintoy
- Halima goes into a significant amount of detail about the culture and history of her tribe. I wonder how much her tribe changed during the genocide.
- What role does pride play in genocide? Either by those being killed and those committing the crime?
- What happens to innocence in genocide?
- What happened to the displaced survivors of the genocide at Darfur?
- What role does money play in this genocide? Do the ones committing genocide use money as a way to give the people in Halima's tribe a false sense of security?
- What role do the beer women play in this genocide? Do they have a significant role at all?
Did the narrator know when she initially began that she was going to begin with explaining the culture and her life? Or did that become her beginning after writing more of the actual genocide account?
Was her grandma happy with the way the narrator had preserved her memory? Or was she frustrated in that she became a more disgruntled character in the book?
Why does she choose to explain certain ways of her culture in such detail? Is it a way of preserving? Or did she just want to be complete in her account?
-Evelyn Yee
-Halima talks about the unrest in her country. Does this unrest lead to the genocide or is something else responsible for the genocide?
-Does the lack of formal education play a role in the genocide?
-Does Halima have a different experience than her family due to the genocide happeneing while she is away at school?
-Who are the perpetrators in this genocide and who are the victims?
-Halima is living in London at the start of the book. How does genocide change peoples' lives and their cultures?
-Now that Halima is living in the Western world, does she have a different perspective and opinion of some of her tribes rituals?
Amy Duke
What are other attributes of Halima's culture stands out to us- like scarring and circumcision? How does the difference in culture effect, or will it effect, US intervention because of the societal perception of Darfur.
Halima describes her family as strong, wealthy, and has pride. This impacted her survival, but what of the other families?
Did Halima use this memoir to help her preserve her childhood and culture?
-Based on Halima's attitude toward obeying authority, as well as the rest of her culture's will to obey their elders, how does the will to obey authority play into this genocide?
-Her father's wealth is mentioned a lot, how will this play into the genocide? Will it help them or hinder them? Will this genocide parallel that of the Cambodian genocide, where having wealth was looked down on, while being poor was praised.
- How significant was the scarring to the genocide? Was it used for identification by the Arabs?
- What is the major dispute fueling this genocide? From the reading it sounds as though all people are Muslim, so does this genocide revolve around race instead of religion, or are there other dynamics in play?
- The author depicts the loss of her womanhood within the female circumcision, and one can only assume that her adolescence left when the genocide occured, as she was so yound when it began. How does genocide affect one's adolescence? Will this account parallel the feelings Kenan experienced after the genocide?
- Did many rape victims keep their children like Halima did? Or is there an overflow of abortions and orphans from this genocide as there was from the Serbian genocide?
- Otyllia Abraham
How did the génocidaires organize themselves?
How did the West respond to this genocide?
Was this genocide carried out by civilians or a military force?
Did Halima's lack of scars contribute to her survival?
-Jeremy Hartman