Women's Rights and Religions: A Contemporary Review

The subject of religion and women's rights is a particularly complex one. It is also highly contested. In the secular West, rights and religion are mostly posed in a binary opposition and ensuing debates often tend to be marked by facile slogans or essentialisms. At the same time, there is opposition to women's rights from postcolonial scholars, critical theorists, and fundamentalists of various stripes. In this essay, Morny Joy surveys particular cases of the relation between women and rights to illustrate the dilemmas they pose. She then considers proposals from women scholars who suggest some vital changes.