A Conflict of Rights Claims

Abstract

In innumerable instances every day and in every corner of the globe, religious practices and human wellbeing are in conflict. The opportunity to follow the principles and to observe the rituals of one’s religious tradition is accorded tremendous importance in the international community. States’ constitutions and international covenants codify and protect the possession and expression of religious sentiment. Freedom of religion is widely considered to be a human right.

In a small village in rural Bangladesh, a handful of women organize to train themselves as weavers and to collectively market their products. Each of them has several children; each has been widowed, deserted, or is caring for an invalid husband. The religious custom of purdah, or seclusion, circumscribes the private and public life of all of the women. It stipulates that they may not work outside their homes. Those who have land to cultivate do so only at night, in the moonlight, for fear of censure or beatings by neighbors and relatives. Their inhibited attempts at farming are not adequate to feed their families. Along with those women who have no land, they now find themselves facing starvation. They say, “Purdah does not feed us.” As they begin to organize, they encounter strong resistance from the local religious authorities. They explain, “Then the mullah does not allow us to talk in the road or to go out of the house. A social barricade is created. ‘You will not be allowed to take water from the tubewell. If you go into the field, your legs will be broken.’” One woman explains, “The mullahs say: ‘When they will die we shall not bury them.’ Villagers say, ‘Wherever they want, they go. They do not cover their heads. They talk with men. They will be sinners.’ I said: ‘If Allah does not see us when we stay hungry then Allah has sinned.’”¹