Tag: cultural relativism
-
Fundamentalism and White Nationalism: the same, just wearing different clothes
Below is the English version of an interview with Marieke Hoogwout published in Dutch in Vrij Links on 20 March 2019. The interview was conducted before the Christchurch and Utrecht terrorist attacks this month. You can read the Dutch interview here. In January, Iranian-British human rights activist Maryam Namazie gave the 24th Freedom Lecture at…
-
Stop safeguarding traditional values over women’s rights
For the first time in its history, the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)–a global policy-making body meant to promote women’s rights–ended with no agreed conclusions. Not since Beijing (4th World Conference on Women in 1995) has there been such a stalemate between women’s rights advocates and religious/conservative forces. Once more, culture and…
-
They deserve it! They defied culture and religion!
Indonesian sharia police arrested more than 60 youth at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, and forced them to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray (definitely not the same as my extending a handshake in case you were wondering). Now there are…
-
Islamophobia: No can do
Islamophobia: No can do Maryam Namazie Published in Iranian.com August 12, 2004 Imagine at a synagogue somewhere in London, Jews are working together to send out £1m worth of books, DVDs and videos about Judaism and the Torah as an act of ‘self-defence’ against anti-Semitism and ‘Judaism-phobia’. Or imagine black South Africans during Apartheid sending…
-
Cultural Relativism: A Foe of Critical Thought
In response to the Canadian Council for Refugees Maryam Namazie Published in Hambastegi English May 2003 Introduction Islam and political Islam (or Islamism), the reactionary extreme Right-wing movement which has organised itself under the banner of Islam, have been immensely catastrophic for the people of the Middle East and the world for the past several…
-
Racism, Cultural Relativism and Women’s Rights
Racism, Cultural Relativism and Women’s Rights Maryam Namazie Speech at a panel discussion organised by the Action Committee on Women’s Rights in Iran and Amnesty International’s Women’s Action Network August 14, 2001 Toronto, Canada Many times you hear that the discussion around cultural relativism versus the universality of women’s rights is a theoretical and unnecessary…
-
Cultural relativism – this era’s fascism
Cultural relativism – this era’s fascism Maryam Namazie Speech given at a forum on women’s rights November 28, 1998 Toronto, Canada * In Germany, in August 1997, an 18-year-old woman was burnt to death by her father for refusing to marry the man he had chosen. A German court gave him a reduced sentence, saying…