“A crime in another language?” revisited
Arabic-centered discourse in the Yousry case
In 1995, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman was convicted for his role in the 1993 plot to bomb the World Trade Center. In 2002, Abdel-Rahman’s attorney Lynne Stewart and his interpreter Mohammed Yousry were arrested and charged with aiding terrorism. The crux of the evidence against them came from their jail visits with Abdel-Rahman. This article examines the roles of Abdel-Rahman, Stewart, and Yousry during those visits. It argues that due to factors such as ethnicity, gender, and religious background, the Arabic language and its related cultural discourse became the central context of interaction. The article focuses on three main facets of this interaction: Arabic-English vis-à-vis English-Arabic translations, Yousry’s mediation of relations through Arabic-centered cultural phenomena, and Stewart’s acceptance of — and to a certain extent participation in — an Arabic-centered discourse through her use of Arabic phrases (particularly religious ones). Twelve segments have been selected from the transcripts to illustrate these phenomena in this situation of violent conflict, which is highly relevant in today’s politically charged climate.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Acosta Vicente, Carmen
2023.
A Literature Review on Gender in Interpreting: Implications for Healthcare Interpreting. In
New Trends in Healthcare Interpreting Studies [
New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ],
► pp. 41 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.