| In the human rights literature, there is a perceived tension between women's human rights and the rights to religion and culture. Scholars disagree about which rights deserve priority over others and which rights trump others when rights are in conflict. Women's rights often are assumed to be at odds with the right to culture. However, in response to the women's human rights and cultural rights literature, I argue that this is a false dichotomy and presents women with an unfair choice between their gender and their community.;Instead of a point of division that allows for the characterization of women's human rights as Western, culture can empower women. Rights can be mutually reinforcing instead of mutually exclusive. Invoking women's human rights does not necessarily lead to the destruction of culture. The multilayered identity of women, especially in the Western, multicultural state, requires a re-imagining of culture in which women's roles and traditions are seen as cultural contributions that have the potential capacity for empowerment in both the public and private spheres. I contend that gendered cultural rights allow women to claim for their rights as female participants in cultural communities, providing an additional avenue for women's human rights claims.;Applying research techniques from legal anthropology, I use the extended case method to examine the rights conflicts that affect women's participation in both their communities and the larger society. This study examines cases from Australia, Canada, France, and the United States. I engage in a textual analysis of cases that permits the consideration of several key "battlegrounds" between women's human rights and culture that illustrate the subtle conflicts that arise between an individualistic conception of women's rights and the conventional interpretations of group rights in the Western, multicultural state. Ultimately, I explore the theoretical implications and policy implications of gendered cultural rights. |
