In China, women from the Muslim Uighur community are allegedly subject to rape and forced sterilisation in the so-called ‘re-education camps’ where hundreds of thousands of people are detained. In Egypt, religiously justified family laws on e.g. marriage, divorce and custody of children discriminate not only against women, but also religious minorities, leaving religious minority women as victims of double discrimination. In France, the criminal ban on full-face covering disproportionately affects the religious manifestations of those Muslim women who choose to wear a face veil. In Russia, laws against ‘the promotion of homosexuality’ make it difficult for SOGI minorities of faith to gather. In India, women are banned from entering the Hindu Sabarimala Temple.
These are just a few examples of the many ways in which violations of freedom of religion or belief (in the following, FoRB) and gender equality intersect. Despite obvious overlaps, actors working for the promotion of respectively FoRB and gender equality rarely work together. In fact, rights related to FoRB and gender equality are often seen to be in contradiction with one another. Underlying this (mis) perception of a normative clash between the two is very often an understanding of FoRB as a right that protects religion – and often conservative, patriarchal religion. For some, this means that FoRB is seen as an inherent obstacle to achieving gender equality; for others, gender equality is seen as a threat to the protection of religious values and practices.
In China, women from the Muslim Uighur community are allegedly subject to rape and forced sterilisation in the so-called ‘re-education camps’ where hundreds of thousands of people are detained. In Egypt, religiously justified family laws on e.g. marriage, divorce and custody of children discriminate not only against women, but also religious minorities, leaving religious minority women as victims of double discrimination. In France, the criminal ban on full-face covering disproportionately affects the religious manifestations of those Muslim women who choose to wear a face veil. In Russia, laws against ‘the promotion of homosexuality’ make it difficult for SOGI minorities of faith to gather. In India, women are banned from entering the Hindu Sabarimala Temple.
These are just a few examples of the many ways in which violations of freedom of religion or belief (in the following, FoRB) and gender equality intersect. Despite obvious overlaps, actors working for the promotion of respectively FoRB and gender equality rarely work together. In fact, rights related to FoRB and gender equality are often seen to be in contradiction with one another. Underlying this (mis) perception of a normative clash between the two is very often an understanding of FoRB as a right that protects religion – and often conservative, patriarchal religion. For some, this means that FoRB is seen as an inherent obstacle to achieving gender equality; for others, gender equality is seen as a threat to the protection of religious values and practices.
This antagonistic construction of the two human rights norms has consequences. A lack of attention to, or an unwillingness to engage with, the intersections between FoRB and gender equality may result in unnecessary clashes, unsatisfactory handling of factual conflicts, and lost opportunities for synergies, learning, and cooperation among actors engaged in the promotion of respectively FoRB and gender equality. Ultimately, this disadvantages the very people these rights are meant to protect, not only in terms of legal protection gaps, but also in terms of strategies and projects that fail in their understanding of and sensitivity to the needs, wishes, experiences and specific vulnerabilities of the many millions of people “whose life situations falls within the intersection of discrimination on the grounds of their religion or belief and discrimination on the ground of their gender.”