Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women [Paperback]

Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an 'all or nothing' approach: fundamentalists claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists dismiss religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores, though, 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. Through an examination of international human rights, national law, grass roots activism, and theology, this volume explores the acute problems that contemporary fundamentalist movements pose for women's equality and liberty rights.Foreword; T.Buergenthal PART I: INTRODUCTION Religious Fundamentalism as a Transnational and Cross-Cultural Movement and the Legal Effect on Women; C.W.Howland PART II: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM ON WOMEN Fundamentalism; J.S.Hawley Christian Fundamentalism; S.D.Rose Responses of Women to Islamic Fundamentalism; M.A.Helie-Lucas The Personal is Political; N.Yuval-Davis PART III: RESPONSES TO RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALIST ASSERTIONS OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM Relativism, Culture, Religion, and Identity; M.Singer Cultural Relativism and International Law; C.Chinkin Gender Apartheid and the Discourse of Relativity of Rights in Muslim Societies; M.Afkhami Different but Free; R.Coomaraswamy PART IV: THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK Safeguarding Women's Political Freedoms Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Face of Religious Fundamentalism; C.W.Howland Religious Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; A.E.Mayer Women's Equlc2