The Right to be Human: How do Muslim Women talk about Human Rights and Religious Freedoms in Britain?

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    Abstract

    This article examines existing literature and data from qualitative fieldwork with Muslim women in Britain to analyse their narratives of human rights and freedom, as they live within plural European contexts. In scared, securitised and polarised Europe, Muslim women have become visible markers of otherness. Each Muslim woman becomes a fulcrum upon which Western values and morality are measured against the ‘other’, its values, its beliefs and its choices. In exploring the implications of societal othering on Muslim women’s experiences of their human rights, this paper concludes that in social contexts that are polemical, becoming the other dehumanises Muslim women who thus become ineligible for ‘human’ rights. In such contexts, a human rights-based approach alone is insufficient to achieve ‘dignity and fairness’ in society. In addition to human rights, societies need robust and rigorous dialogue so that societal differences become part of a new mediated plural reality.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)49-75
    Number of pages27
    JournalReligion & Human Rights
    Volume13
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 27 Mar 2018

    Keywords

    • Muslim women
    • Islamic Feminism
    • Britain
    • religious freedom
    • human rights

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