2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

More than  two decades after its inception in 1993, in the UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, the women’s human rights are  either rejected or challenged/modified through the replacement of gender equality with the intertwined concepts of gender equity and gender justice in the Muslim world.

In the context of globalization of Islamism, regarding the post-modern discourses developed on “difference” and multi-culturalism which tend to take the cultural distinctiveness as an unchallengeable given, together with the growing interest in the advocacy of  Habermasian understanding of post-secular society and religious citizenship, it becomes important to understand  why the concept of gender justice via gender equity became so compelling for many Muslim women as well as Islamist and/or post-Islamist authorities.     

This panel   aims to explore to what extent  Muslim women who live either under Muslim Law or in Muslim–yet-secular societies like Turkey advocate gender equity instead of gender equality  in the context of different social and political  agendas.  How  is this difference between the two  interpreted and manifested  in both governmental and nongovernmental gender policies ?  In what ways , do the interplay  of differences  between  equity/equality  effect women’s quotidian?   Can the  prominence of  gender equity  be evaluated   as an empowerment strategy for women  or is it a  manifestation of expression of religious freedom while also securing women’s agency?  The  panel invites to reassess the philosophical,  sociological and political  implications of equality/ equity frameworks  on the women’s human rights at this stage of history in  the Muslim world .