Not Your Victim

Marie Kawthar Daouda is a Lecturer in French at Oriel College, University of Oxford. Born and raised in Morocco, educated in the Lycée Henri-IV and at la Sorbonne, her research focuses on representations of good and evil in fin-de-siècle French literature and on the links between politics, literature, and religion in the 19th and 20th century. She regularly writes for The Critic and The Daily Telegraph.

"The current mania for 'decolonization' puffs itself up as the champion of the victims of the West. So when a dark-hued, Moroccan-born, French-speaking, female immigrant declares her love for (much of) Western civilization, exposes the historical distortions of its 'woke' critics, and warns of their racial divisiveness, she commands attention. Marie Kawthar Daouda's striking witness carries authority, and does it with style."Lord Nigel Biggar, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford, and author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning"In this brave and brilliant book, Dr Marie Daouda slices through the dogmas of our age with rare moral clarity. Refusing to flatten history into a tale of villains and victims, she offers a richer, more truthful account – one that affirms complexity, agency, and shared inheritance. A vital intervention in our overheated debates on empire and identity."Inaya Folarin Iman, Director of The Equiano Project"Fascinating, provocative, and elegantly erudite."Kathleen Stock, philosopher and author of Material Girls"Not Your Victim is a bracing, provocative read… peppered with re-inspections of our unconscious assumptions about slavery and empire."Irish Examiner"a passionate, erudite and elegant cri de coeur on behalf of faith, freedom and beauty. It is a welcome and necessary rejoinder to the cultural and political elites who would impose the credo of victimhood on the rest of us."Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, The Critic"This is one of the best books of its kind yet published"Conservative Home"Brilliant [...] a powerful vision of the transformative power of culture, place and beauty."Engelsberg Ideas"An intelligent and courageous critique of how modern identity politics, victimhood culture, and the decolonisation of the curriculum entrap and divide society."History Reclaimed

• ContentsIntroduction: A Strange IslandChapter 1 Where are you really from?Chapter 2 The Noble Savage, The French Revolution, and Mrs JellybyChapter 3 Places with no statuesChapter 4 Iconoclasm, old and newChapter 5 Must Rhodes fallChapter 6 Tolerance, diversity, and neo-orientalismChapter 7 Cultural appropriation and cultural gatekeeping Chapter 8 The Racism of Cultural SuicideChapter 9 The triumph of the victim and the rise of 'empowerment'Chapter 10: Equality: The tyranny of low expectationsChapter 11 Western rootsChapter 12 A Christian identityConclusion Growing Roots