Going beyond the universal-versus-relativist rights discourse and practice: the case of Malaysia

As a women’s rights activist and Christian feminist, how would I begin to respond to women and men who are conditioned to believe that inequitable, and often violent, gender relationships are a way of life and God-intended? To what extent are cultures and religions sources of an affirmation of the rights of women as much as they are impediments? Having been involved in the women’s movement in Malaysia with regional and international exposure since the 1990s, I was convinced that one had to look towards religion to advance women’s rights in the context of Malaysia, where life decisions are significantly impacted not only by religious teachings but also by cultural practices. In this chapter, I attempt to show how and why it is imperative to negotiate the tensions between rights and religions in global and local contexts. From the standpoint of the faith-rights-based activists I interviewed-those whose activism is informed by a rights framework and imbued with a spiritual ethos-I argue that foreclosing the universal-versus-relativist debate in gender studies as a deadlock is an act of epistemological violence.