Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women

by Howland, Courtney W.; Buergenthal, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780312218973
• ISBN10: 0312218974
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-04
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an "all or nothing" approach: fundamentalists rely on a claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists have dismissed religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores the experiences of religious women who suffer under fundamentalism and fight to resist it, perceiving themselves to be at once religious and feminist. In Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women , Howland provides a forum for these different scholars, both religious and nonreligious, to meet and seek common ground in their fight against fundamentalism.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Social and Political Sciences Perspectives on the Impact of Religious Fundamentalism on Women
Fundamentalism	p. 3
Christian Fundamentalism: Patriar Chy, Sexuality, and Human Rights	p. 9
What is Your Tribe?: Women's Struggles and the Construction of Muslimness	p. 21
The Personal is Political: Jewish Fundamentalism and Women's Empowerment	p. 33
Responses to Religious Fundamentalist Assertions of Cultural Relativism
Relativism, Culture, Religion, and Identity	p. 45
Cultural Relativism and International Law	p. 55
Gender Apartheid and the Discourse of Relativity of Rights in Muslim Societies	p. 67
Different But Free: Cultural Relativism and Women's Rights as Human Rights	p. 79
The Conflict between the Human Rights of Women and the Religious Freedom of Fundamentalists: The International Legal Framework
Safeguarding Women's Political Freedoms Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Face of Religious Fundamentalism	p. 93
Religious Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: What Do They Really Mean?	p. 105
Women's Equal Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: an Important But Neglected Subject	p. 117
The Potential of International Law to Combat Discrimination Against Girls in Education	p. 129
Religious Fundamentalism and National Laws
The Two Faces of Secularism and Women's Rights in India	p. 143
Religion and Patriarchal Politics: the Israeli Experience	p. 155
Family Disputes Involving Muslim Women in Contemporary Europe: Immigrant Women Caught Between Islamic Family Law and Women's Rights	p. 167
The War over Women's Bodies: Sexuality and Reproduction
Finding Our Feet, Standing Our Ground: Reproductive Health Activism in an Era of Rising Fundamentalism and Economic Globalization	p. 181
Roman Catholic Fundamentalism: What's Sex (and Power) Got to Do With It?	p. 193
Reconciling the Opposites: Equal But Subordinate	p. 203
Buddhism and Human Rights in the Thai Sex Trade	p. 215
Nonlegal Remedies, Resistance, and Exit
Women Educating Women in the Afghan Diaspora: Why and How	p. 229
Challenging Christian Fundamentalism: Organizing an Alternative to the Religious Right in Your State	p. 237
Gender-Based Asylum in the United States: a View from the Trenches	p. 247
Tales of Subversion: Women Challenging Fundamentalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran	p. 257
Religious Challenges to Religious Fundamentalism
A Feminist Perspective on Jewish Fundamentalism	p. 271
Truth Over Convention: Feminist Interpretations of Buddhism	p. 281
Religion and Women's Rights: the Fundamentalist Face of Catholicism in Brazil	p. 293
Reclaiming the Religious Center from a Muslim Perspective: Theological Alternatives to Religious Fundamentalism	p. 303
Contributors	p. 315
Index	p. 323
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