Right now, there’s an excellent series going on over at the
Gender Across Borders blog called “Culture and Human Rights:
Challenging Excuses for Gender Based Violence.” I will be
following the posts in this series, but I also wanted to bring
up discussion about the topic over here. Cultural relativism is
used worldwide as an excuse for human rights violations, and
particularly violence and discrimination against women. To quote
the blog: Throughout the world culture is employed to justify
discrimination and violence against women. ‘Culture’ is used to
impose control over women’s bodies, sexuality, emotions,
decisions and actions, preventing them from expressing their own
free will and enjoying their fundamental freedoms and human
rights. Regardless, of who we are, where we are, we are all
under the ‘control’ of ‘culture.’ A more specific example: In my
undergraduate Amnesty International group, I remember a
discussion we held about FGM/FGC and the cultural arguments for
and against the practice. To me, FGM/FG