Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women

C. Howland

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9780333801406
• eBook ISBN: 9780230107380
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• I. Social and Political Sciences Perspectives on the Impact of Religious Fundamentalism on Women
• II. Responses to Religious Fundamentalist Assertions of Cultural Relativism
• III. The Conflict between the Human Rights of Women and the Religious Freedom of Fundamentalists: The International Legal Framework
• IV. Religious Fundamentalism and National Laws
• V. The War over Women's Bodies: Sexuality and Reproduction
• VI. Nonlegal Remedies, Resistance, and Exit
• VII. Religious Challenges to Religious Fundamentalism
• CONTRIBUTORS
• INDEX