Do human rights activists need to “get religion”, or should they steer clear? Indeed, the religious challenge to women’s rights is so fraught and complex that secular groups at the UN often avoid the issue entirely. The same is true in international development circles, where (at least until recently) development actors have tended to more-or-less completely ignore religious dynamics and instead uphold secular approaches that treat religion as though it is only relevant in the private sphere of society, if at all.
Such head-in-the-sand secularism, however, can cause serious problems.
By relegating religion to the private sphere, where women are more likely to be located than men, conservative religion often flourishes unchecked, strengthened by appeals to “group rights”. The liberal democratic state doesn’t want to “interfere”, but then effectively leaves women to fend for themselves.
