This past fall I had a disagreement with a classmate, in which she maintained that universal human rights (in their current form) are distinctively Western. I felt it was arrogant to imagine that only Western culture could give rise to values like equality. (I guess our two positions weren’t necessarily exclusive. It felt like a disagreement!) I decided to use my essay for that class as an opportunity to research and support my position., and write about how women in non-Western cultures reconcile seeming conflicts between their religious and cultural identities, and their rights as women. I ended up focusing on Muslim women. The essay really is just a jumping off point towards gaining a better understanding of Muslim women’s relationship with feminism. There are, of course, websites that are by actual Muslim Women (not me), such as Muslimah Media Watch.
In light of recent events such as "Boobquake" and the governments of France, Belgium and Quebec banning the niqab in public, during which many non-Muslims made assumptions about Muslim women, I felt that it might be useful to share my essay. I offer it to others who are in the same position I was, to third-wavers who want to be culturally sensitive but don’t know how to reconcile that position with their feminism, and to those who think that certain cultures or religions are inherently irreconcilable with feminism.
Note: I own the copyright to this! I worked hard on it! If you want to quote it, limit the quote to a couple of sentences and link back to me!
Sources that are available online are linked. Articles that are only available from paid sites are labled with [H] for Hein Online and [L] for Lexis Nexus
Introduction
The family is often seen as the fundamental building block of society. Hence, the character of “the family” makes up a significant part of a group's identity. Part of the character of the family is determined by the place of women in the home and in the society as a whole. In this way, the status of women's rights also contributes to group identity.
This can be observed in societies around the world. In Canada, it was observable in the 2004 debate in Ontario about the use of Sharia law for family arbitration. The very public debate was framed as a conflict between the universal rights of women, and the rights of a minority community to practice its religion – a conflict between universalism and cultural relativism. When framed this way, the voices of the women whose rights are at stake – in this case, religious Muslim women – are often ignored.
Such clashes between the principles of universalism and cultural relativism can also be understood as conflicts over asserting and maintaining Western superiority in a post-colonial world, and local patriarchs attempting to sustain the conditions under which they were powerful, resisting the economic and technological change brought on by globalization. Women, as the embodiment of culture, tradition and the family – in all societies – are the battleground in this conflict.
While equality ought not be denied on any ground, and certainly not on cultural grounds, neither is it possible for equality to be imposed. Equality can only be claimed. In fact, Muslim women are claiming equality, and in doing so they are challenging the framework through which human rights, the law, culture and religion, and family are currently understood. This essay examines the ways in which they do so, and the implications of those strategies.
This essay focuses on women's rights in countries where Muslim law is applied to at least specific segments of legal disputes; this group of countries includes those which are theocratic, and those with mostly secular laws. In discussing the intersection between law, culture, and religion, this essay may refer to culture and religion interchangeably, since concepts about identity often apply to both; and cultural practices are often subsumed by religion, while religion is often considered to be at least partially determinative of a group's culture.
In the process of claiming their rights, many Muslim feminists have re-theorized human rights, equality, and freedom of religion. Canada, as a country whose Muslim population is growing, may well have to deal with legal questions about the supposed conflict between gender equality and religious freedom, as Ontario had to do. When the time comes, Canadian lawmakers would do well to consider the unique perspective of Muslim feminists, not least because it is their rights that are at stake, but also because their perspective has much to contribute to equality law and family law, in terms of nuance and complexity.
This essay will proceed in three parts. Part One will establish the relationship between cultural identity, the symbolic family, and women's rights, and discuss why the traditional rights paradigm provided by universalism and cultural relativism is inadequate. Part Two discusses five different approaches that Muslim women's rights activists have taken, the benefits and shortcomings of each, and their implications for the future. Part Three concludes with a brief discussion of what it would mean for lawmakers to take the perspectives of Muslim women into account.
Part One: The Human Rights Debate: Universalism vs. Cultural Relativism
The family plays an important role in the construction of group identity. It is seen as the building block of the nation; the site where culture and tradition are preserved and passed on to the next generation; and the embodiment and expression of a society's values (
Kuo). Because of their association with the private sphere, women are often equated with their roles as mothers – those who sustain the family, and nurture the future of the community – and are given similar social significance as the family itself (
Fishbayn, para 3 [H]).
