Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women Summary

What seems to most like the debate of the West versus the rest, the debate of whether to enforce universal human rights of individuals (set forth in documents such as the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)) or to promote difference and recognize group rights, is as alive as ever in recent years thanks to intellectuals like Seyla Benhabib, Martha Nussbaum, Chandra Mohanty, Susan Okin Moller and Charles Taylor. The primary question behind this debate of universal legal principles versus group rights is whether or not a concept of universal justice exists. Benhabib, Nussbaum, and Alcoff believe that it does, while Mohanty does not.The more convincing arguments are put forth by Benhabib, Nussbaum, and Alcoff, who believe in universal principles of justice and also problematize, yet favor universalism over

In the past, the French government granted certain French citizens capabilities that no other citizens had. One of those abilities was the right to contract polygamous marriages. She recognized that the granting of these rights create a snowball effect for more group-exclusive rights. She writes, “In other cases, groups have claimed rights to govern themselves, to have guaranteed political representation, or to be exempt from certain generally applicable laws.” The immunity from certain generally applicable laws, for instance, provide a loophole for men to engage in self-interested practices which may include a means of controlling women. In fact, Moller states that “In polygamous cultures, too, men readily acknowledge that the practice accords with self-interest and is a means of controlling women.” Such practices are both immoral and unfair to women as a collective whole and provide a reason for the support of universal human rights and equality of all individuals as