Resources on resisting & challenging religious fundamentalism
06:50, 20 April 2009
.. Posted in Development, Relief and Advocacy Efforts.. Link
The Association for Women's Rights in Development has a a terrific worldwide initiative on Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalism. This is an advocacy-research project that seeks to strengthen the responses of women’s rights activists to the rise of religious fundamentalisms across regions and religions. It aims to foster a deeper and shared understanding of the way fundamentalisms work, grow and undermine women's rights, and to share strategies that have been used by women’s rights activists to resist and challenge religious fundamentalisms.
There are three publications from this initiative worth your time to read:
- Shared Insights: Women’s rights activists define religious fundamentalisms
What do we mean when we speak of the phenomenon of “religious fundamentalisms”? Is the term useful for women’s rights activists? Who are the main fundamentalist actors in the contemporary world? By grappling with these questions, this publication aims to understand how women’s rights activists from different parts of the world experience and define the complex phenomenon of religious fundamentalisms. Based on the responses of more than 1,600 individuals to AWID’s survey in September 2007, and 51 in-depth interviews conducted by the AWID research team, this publication aims to explore how women’s rights activists characterize religious fundamentalisms and to reach a better understanding of their views and experiences of the issue in various parts of the world.
Religious Fundamentalisms on the Rise: A case for action
Religious fundamentalisms are gaining strength within the world’s major and minor religions, and across all the world’s regions. In the views of women’s rights activists, these movements have intensified over the last ten years, and have grown more visible, strategic and aggressive. This publication draws on the survey responses of more than 1,600 women’s rights activists and interviews with 51 key experts. It seeks to build a deeper and more shared understanding among women’s rights activists and their allies of the way fundamentalist projects work to undermine women’s rights, human rights and development.
Ten myths about religious fundamentalisms
The myths exposed in this publication come from the experiences of more than 1,600 women’s rights activists who responded to AWID’s Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms survey, as well as 51 key experts who were interviewed for the project.
Together, these women’s rights activists represent a diverse group: ranging in age from under 16 to over 65 years of age; working on different issues and affected by different religious fundamentalisms; working at local, national, regional or international levels in various regions, and in organizations that range from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to government and multilateral agencies. They include academics, human rights defenders, youth and development workers, as well as members of religious
organizations.
Despite this diversity, we found many myths in common: myths we hold about religious fundamentalisms, as well as myths that religious fundamentalists would like us to believe. Our research reveals that the behaviours and impacts of religious fundamentalisms are clearly more negative than they would like to admit or take responsibility for. But it also reveals that religious fundamentalisms are not as simple to analyze as we sometimes believe. In other words, some major myths, promoted both from the inside looking out and from the outside looking in, were exposed by our findings.
This publication is about the top ten myths common to all regions and religions covered in AWID’s research. They can be countered by holding religious fundamentalists accountable for what they say and do, and by ensuring that our analysis most closely matches the lived experiences of women’s rights activists. By exposing these myths, we hope that we can contribute to strengthening resistance and challenges to religious fundamentalisms.
