Essay #4- Julia Tew- Afghani women's rights in context

The situated context of Afghani women?s universal and cultural rights.

    While it is popular to imagine culture, tradition, and even nations as possessing a consistent unchanging character, such constructions are inaccurate  As Massey explains, the culture and context of any given place is relative and open to interpretation (1993).   Not only do traditions and culture change and adapt over time, but the meanings assigned to particular places or traditions vary from group to group and individual to individual.  These understandings often spring from subtle power structures, or what Massey terms ?power-geometry? (Massey, 1993, p. 61).  As she explains, ?Different social groups and different individuals are placed in very distinct ways? it is also about power? (p. 61).  
    Winter (2006) builds more specifically on this theory, exploring the constructions of women?s rights as either universal rights or subsets of ?group? rights (p. 381).  The chosen construction frequently depends on the powerful social actors? interpretation of the meanings and contexts of the specific rights in question.  Often, religion and tradition are invoked to provide support for one interpretation over another.  These two issues become particularly relevant in modern Afghan society, where religion is a key part of culture and is continually being evaluated and updated based on understandings of the religious tradition.  What some deem as mere cultural or religious differences, as does Pfaff (2006), others situate within a framework of universal understanding.  Take for example the Muslim tradition, and sometimes state law, of women?s head coverings.  Pfaff intuitively defines this a cultural tradition, not worthy of questioning specifically, but as a non-moral civilization difference (2006, p. 14).  Winter, however, repositions the issue within a broader context, seeking similarities with situations across the global in order to understand not only the particular place and time, but also the traditions, adaptations and power structures that have shaped and continue to mold the traditions.
    Much work on the issue of globalization and change revolves around issues of culture, homogenization and the role of nation-states.  But as Winter (2006) and Massey (1993) contend, evaluating these aspects without an eye toward power relations paints an incomplete portrait.  Morris and Waisbord comment on the cultural flows concerning human rights that ?from the outside in, human rights groups such as Amnesty International communicate directly with affected publics? (2001, p. xiv).  But this optimistic observation is quite minimal.  While it is true that AI and similar groups strive to communicate directly with their ?affected publics?, their communication and their access is understandably restricted and reframed within the context of national and global culture.  This culture, according to Winter, is one that universally privileges males, restructuring and re-interpreting society and its laws to serve masculine interests, including a continued suppression of females (2006, p.383).  This, she states, is not merely a culturally contextual practice but one that is prevalent across national and religious boundaries.    Additionally, she adds a critique of human rights groups, similar to AI, that strive to make changes within the confines of this oppressive systems and through the assistance of the oppressors, namely the male-dominated national governments.  This type of collusion cannot be enough, as it still situates women as secondary humans (Winter, 2006, p.385).
    








Massey, Doreen (1993). ?Power-geometry and a Progressive Sense of Place.? Ch. 4. in Bird, John, et al. (editors), Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change. London: Routledge. Pp.59-69.  Electronic reserve: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresdocs/files/h5217.pdf.

Pfaff, W. (June 16, 2006). Clash of cultures: Globalization and the march of Western values. Commonweal. 13-17.

Waisbord, Silvio, and Morris, Nancy (2001). Introduction: Rethinking media globalization and state power. In Silvio Waisbord and Nancy Morris (editors), Media and Globalization: Why the State Matters. Lanham, MD;  Boulder, CO; New York, NY; and Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield.  Pp. vii-xvi.  Online: http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/~wiley/courses/447/WaisbordMorris2001.pdf.  

Winter, B. (2006). Religion, culture and women's human rights: Some general political and theoretical considerations. Women's Studies International Forum, 29(4). 381-393.
 

Posted at 11:56AM Jun 15, 2007 by TEW, JULIA in General  |  Comments[3]