Religious freedom and gender equality: the Sharia debates and gendered institutions in Australia and Britain

ABSTRACT

In the post-9/11 climate, the focus of multicultural debates in ‘the West’ has turned to Muslim minorities. Within these debates, religious freedom is weighed against gender equality. This is amplified where Muslim communities request greater accommodation. Such requests are often met with fierce opposition (which outlines the ‘danger’ that greater religious accommodation poses to the rights of women), and the state and its institutions are positioned as ‘secular’ and ‘neutral’, as opposed to religious orders. However, this ignores gender legacies, which influence outcomes that emerge within these institutions. A dimension of particular interest is the Sharia councils that have arisen in the British context but not in Australia. To better understand the current trajectory of accommodation in each state and the growth of these informal religious bodies, it is necessary to go beyond normative debates about multiculturalism versus feminism. Drawing on feminist institutional theory, this article explores the way in which state multicultural policies have created space for religious bodies in Britain but not in Australia. It also examines the gendered nature of formal state institutions, to highlight that the apparent ‘neutrality’ of state institutions is a fallacy that disadvantages Muslim women while claiming to be in their best interests.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious freedom
• gender equality
• Sharia
• multiculturalism
• gendered institutions
• family law

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There is a long feminist critique of this. See, for example, Korteweg (2008) and Razack (2007).

2. In FI, ‘nested newness’ refers to the way that ‘new’ institutions (or institutional change) are ‘embedded in time, sequence and … institutional environment’ (Mackay 2014, 552).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amira Aftab

Amira Aftab is an Early Career Researcher at Macquarie Law School. She currently teaches in the area of human rights, policy and governance. Her research explores the intersection between gender, religion and state institutions, with a focus on the rights and representation of minority women within multicultural societies.