WUNRN
UNRISD - Policy Brief 11
RELIGION, POLITICS & GENDER
EQUALITY
EXCERPTS: Contrary to modernist
predictions that religion would retreat into a private zone of worship and
practice, recent decades have seen religion become increasingly salient on the
political stage worldwide. Does this matter? From the point of view of women’s rights
and gender equality, much is at stake. UNRISD research shows that politicized
religion impinges on women’s rights in problematic ways. The challenge to
gender equality comes not just from fundamentalist agendas, but also from those
who instrumentalize women’s rights for political ends.
While religious attachments and
practices may have weakened in some geographical regions (most notably in
Western Europe), on a global scale they seem to have persisted, if not
intensified. Moreover, religious actors and movements have gained prominence on
the political stage over the past three decades. This “de-privatization” of
religion puts into question the prediction that sweeping secularization would
be the inevitable companion to development.
What are the social and political
implications of religion assuming prominent and contested political roles? Has
the spread of politicized religion made it harder for women to pursue equality
with men?
Some observers see
incompatibilities between democracy, human rights and gender equality, on the
one hand, and a world in which religion plays an active role in public affairs,
on the other.
Others ask whether it is useful to
see religion as the nemesis of gender equality, and secularism as the
precondition for it. Questioning the opposition between a “religious Right” and
a “secular Left”, they provide a more nuanced assessment that recognizes the
need for greater attention to women’s agency and engagement with religion in
ways that may be empowering. Many observers now agree that banning religion
from the public arena of citizen deliberation and association is problematic
from a democratic point of view, and ultimately counter-productive. Some even
argue that religion can be a counterweight to the institutions of the state and
the market, revitalizing public debate on their workings and social
implications.
In addition, where states have
failed to deliver physical security, welfare provisioning or a sense of
national belonging, faith-based groups have enjoyed a revival as they have
rushed in to fill the gaps. The resilience of these groups, their ingenuity in
substituting for state services (be it health, education or some minimal form
of social protection) and their effectiveness in providing members with a sense
of dignity and purpose, can render.
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Policy
Implications
The authority of religion has been
used too often to dictate how women should relate to their parents and
husbands, whether and what they can study, where they can go, and what they can
wear. The language of religion has even been invoked to condone various forms
of violence against women. Individual rights provide necessary protection from
such interference. The discourse of rights is not restricted to Western
liberalism, nor do Western countries have a monopoly over rights—the global
human rights conventions reflect the struggles of diverse movements, across
North-South and East-West divides, and rights can be formulated and argued in
both religious and nonreligious terms.
Hence, the protection of
human rights has to be given priority, particularly when it comes to claims
made in the name of religion (and culture).
The connections between economic,
social, civil and political rights are particularly clear in women’s lives. Yet
in many contexts the state has done far too little to provide the
infrastructure, social services and access to justice needed to substantiate
rights and thus give them meaning. Where class bias enables betterconnected,
more affluent people to flout the law while the poor are penalized, and where
the state and its resources mean one thing for the poor and another for the
rich, the vacuum can be easily filled by morally conservative elements.
It is the duty of the
state to provide inclusive social and economic programmes that meet people’s needs
in a dignified manner.
Women’s rights and
human rights advocates need to engage more forcefully with livelihood issues
and popular concerns about unemployment, lack of services and insecurity.
This Research and Policy Brief
draws attention to ways in which gender equality has been instrumentalized—
whether to repress marginalized ethnic/religious groups, or to advance
particular political agendas.
In such contexts it
becomes even more important for women’s rights advocates working with
governments, international NGOs or regional and international agencies to learn
from grassroots women’s advocacy groups that are familiar with the constraints
of their localities.
In recent years a diverse range of
development actors, from NGOs to governments and international agencies, have
entered into alliances with faith-based organizations in order to further their
mandates (from health services to post-conflict rehabilitation). Such alliances
are frequently justified in the name of pragmatism. But this is not sufficient.
A useful guiding principle
here is the following: the alliance should work not only for the immediate
objective (for example, reaching women and their families), but also in terms
of its long-term transformative effects (such as expanding women’s options).
Organizations must be vigilant to avoid achieving immediate objectives at the
expense of legitimizing structures and/or principles that are inimical to
gender equality.
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