|
To summarize, the Universalist/Western approach, fails in two significant ways. First, any focus on legal remedies alone overlooks the fact that laws have failed to effectuate change. Only where there is a significant change in how women are valued will international legislation support a movement towards equal treatment.
Second, the Universalists'' approach of imposing Western values ignores the positive impact of cultural difference and the negative effects of stripping a nation of its culture. In order for women globally to achieve a higher degree of human rights, they must create this change themselves through internal movements. Outsiders, such as Universalists/Westerners are not situated to determine the nature of the change that should take place in another culture, and their imposed Western values are not easily internalized. Specifically, women must promote change in the values and beliefs of their fellow citizens.
Chapter Two
Here in this part I am not intended to review the cultural background of each country whose women have suffered human rights abuses. However, I would like to rectify some misunderstanding on the nature of culture. What is culture? “A” culture is not a thing, but rather a historically and socially situated set of practices, never inert or static, but an always fragmented and changing product of negotiation and struggle. As such those practices are subject to re-negotiation as a result of new struggles, for example, Tchamba and Afghani women’s battle to redefine their rights in the face of new political realities.
I am in the opinion that Women’s plights, no matter genital operations, or religious-based discrimination, or domestic abuses, etc. although have their causes deep-rooted in their culture and ideology, still have their specific causes under the larger economic, political and social background. For example, genital surgeries are outlawed in Togo but the law is not enforced, probably because women without it would, in the short run, be left without economic or social alternatives. The Indian government does not enforce bans on sati perhaps because of its rallying power for separatists that undercuts the legitimacy of the state. The Taleban’s version of Islam may have as much or more to do with its political agenda than with a specific version of religious tradition. That women return to the household in Poland serves the short-term needs of capitalist development there. Women in Togo, Afghanistan, Poland, and India should not be isolated and left to struggle alone in the name of a misguided cultural relativity.
Based on the above, I suggest that international community can help those women to discover which human rights concepts, symbols, and images are most relevant in their own societies and how they can best combat abuses. Women should ask themselves whose interests are served by traditions and customs that control women’s autonomy, sexuality, production and reproduction. What are the implications for them and their society if they continue to be allocated less food, medical care, educational opportunities, and political offices than men. Whose interests are served when women suffer disproportionately from the contradictions of global expansion of capitalism development that diminish rather than enhance life’s possibilities?
|
