The right to culture and the culture of rights: a critical perspective on women’s sexual rights in Africa

Tamale, Sylvia

doi:10.1007/s10691-007-9078-6

Cited by 97 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Also, Tamale (2008) has noted that Western scholars tend to make erroneous conclusion that all African cultures are bad and capable of eroding the human rights of women. In her view, this is misleading as some African cultures are positive and do promote harmony and congruity in society.…”

Section: What Is Asking the African Woman Question?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the woman question

Durojaye

Oluduro

2016

Fem Leg Stud

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Durojaye, E. et al. (2016). The African commission on human and people's rights and the woman question. AbstractThis paper proposes that in developing jurisprudence on women's rights, the African Commission will need to ask the woman question, particularly the African woman question. The woman question requires a judicial or quasi-judicial body to always put woman at the centre of any decision with a view to addressing the historically disadvantaged position of women in society. Asking the African woman question means examining how the peculiar experiences of African women have been ignored by laws rooted in patriarchy across the region. Although the Commission has handled few cases directly dealing with women's rights, the paper suggests that the Commission can draw inspiration from decisions of other regional and international human rights bodies such as the European Court on Human Rights and the Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) on how to ask the woman question. The paper recommends that in line with feminist reasoning, there is a need for the African Commission to develop a consistent gender-sensitive approach in dealing with cases that may have implications for women. In essence, the African Commission must ask the African woman question when dealing with cases on the enjoyment of women's fundamental rights.

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Section: What Is Asking the African Woman Question?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the woman question

Durojaye

Oluduro

2016

Fem Leg Stud

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“…Conservative fascination with the imagined heterosexual family as the only normative tradition disputes burgeoning scholarship that asserts the complexities, diversities, flux, contradictions, inherent transformations, paradoxes, contestations, ambiguities, ambivalences and heterogeneity of African sexualities (e.g. Epprecht 2004;Morrell and Ouzghane 2005;Tamale 2008;Teunis 1996).…”

Section: Locating Reified Culture In Uganda's Anti-homosexuality Billmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda

Nyanzi

2013

Culture, Health & Sexuality

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Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 aimed at protecting the cherished culture of the people against emergent threats to the traditional heterosexual family. The Bill's justification, however, lay in myopic imaginings of a homogenous African-ness and pedestrian oblivion to pluralities within African sexualities. This paper revisits the debate that homosexuality is 'un-African'. Rhetoric analysis of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill exposes how dominant discourses of law, medicine, religion, geography and culture reinforce the view that homosexuality is foreign to Africa. Based on ethnography in contemporary Uganda, I explore how self-identified same-sex-loving individuals simultaneously claim their African-ness and their homosexuality. Their strategies include ethnic belonging, membership to kinship structures, making connections with pre-colonial histories of homosexuality, civic participation in democratic processes, national identity, organising of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning support groups, language and nomenclature, visibility and voice in local communal activities, solidarity and adherence to cultural rituals. In present-day Uganda, same-sex-loving men, women and transgender people variously assert their African-ness.

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“…Other commentators have argued that scholars from the West are often quick at criticising and condemning cultural practices of other people without a careful reflection on the origin and relevance of those practices (Gunning, 1992;Lewis, 1995). Tamale (2008) has noted that there are positive and negative aspects of every culture and that it is misleading to assume that all African cultures interfere with the enjoyment of women's rights.…”

Section: J U S T I F Ying W I D O W H Ood Pr a C T I C E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

'Woman, But Not Human': Widowhood Practices and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria

Durojaye

2013

International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family

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This article examines widowhood practices in Nigeria and its implications for the enjoyment of women's fundamental rights and freedoms. The article discusses the effects of the socio-cultural and legal structures of Nigeria for gender equality. It argues that the plural legal system in the country, which encourages the application of statutory law side by side with customary law, can potentially undermine women's fundamental rights. The article then discusses specific human rights of women, particularly the rights to dignity and non-discrimination that are threatened by widowhood practices. In conclusion, it is argued that since Nigeria has ratified international and regional human rights instruments such as the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women (African Women's Protocol), it is obligated to take appropriate steps and measures to eradicate harmful cultural practices that may violate women's rights.

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The right to culture and the culture of rights: a critical perspective on women’s sexual rights in Africa

Cited by 97 publications

References 21 publications

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the woman question

The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the woman question

Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda

'Woman, But Not Human': Widowhood Practices and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria

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