ethic associated with many non-western societies, as opposed to the focus on individuality and protection of each person’s rights against state hegemony in the West. The communitarian ethic believes society to be more than just a sum of its individual members, and considers that achievement of duties takes precedence over the security of one’s rights 6 . The notion behind prioritizing individual rights in the UDHR is an attempt to surpass cultural bias, so that the declaration becomes pertinent to all. Yet critics continue to argue that the UDHR is a neo-colonialist attempt by the west to control the lives of the non-western world they once ruled. Scholar S.P Sinha (1978) 7 wrote ‘to the extent these kinds of rights are concerned. We have the scenario of one particular culture, or one particular ideology, claiming to be imposed upon the entire world’. A slightly contrasting example of one culture attempting to inflict its ideology on others is the current declaration of a ‘caliphate’ Middle East. The Islamic State claim that they are building a new supreme state spanning Iraq and Syria ‘untainted by corruption, or western influence ’. 8 This has involved the banning of western products such as Coca-Cola and returning to vindictive forms of sharia law – including public flogging of thieves. The caliphate, like the UDHR, does not recognize national borders and believes itself to be the definitive moral authority. This Article outlines how we, as humans, are all equal. Particularly contentious is the fact that this, of course, includes women. There are cultures, especially Islamic societies, where gender inequality is enshrined through patriarchal domination. With extensive divergences of cultural practice, how can women’s rights be universal? Saudi Arabia withdrew from the vote over the adoption of the UDHR, claiming that both Articles 16 and 18 (the Articles which outline the rights for men and women to marry who they choose and the right to freedom of religion) were not in accordance with the dictats of Islam. Like Saudi Arabia, many other ‘non-western’ cultures place far more emphasis on the importance of religion to society than the west. This leads many to argue that a community can only accept human rights if they are legitimated by their respective deity or religious leaders. However, the UDHR claims no such heritage; a drafted reference to ‘a creator’ was consciously left out of the final document, in an attempt to obtain universal acceptance. But, it has been equally been criticized for this very reason. Much of the cultural practice in such Arab states involves the severe repression of women, such as denying them the right to leave the home without being accompanied by a male, or denying every woman the right to education, obviously not compliant to various articles of the UDHR. In Afghanistan, in May 2010, the Taliban ordered a young mother to be stoned to death for adultery, before an audience of over 3,000 rapturous men and children. 9 This practice is only one of the many traditional punishments carried out under sharia law, admittedly a particularly punitive version. Not only is this form of severe, radical sharia law being practiced and spread to other Arab states by the Taliban, they also demand to implement their religious and cultural values without international intervention. Taliban leaders claim cultural exceptionalism; they should not be judged against Western customs. However, it is important to remember that it is not only non-western cultures which are under scrutiny. It is only recently in Florida, that the faulty electric chair – which lead to significant suffering amongst prisoners on death row – was replaced by lethal injection, in an attempt to make capital punishment as painless and quick as possible. This, like the Taliban’s sharia law, had been dubbed ‘barbaric and brutal’ by many legislators across the US and abroad. Mimicking the Taliban response, the local politicians claim that it is their business and should be ignored by outsiders, often citing Old Testament doctrines, such as ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ [Exodus 21] 10 as justification. Likewise, radical Islamic leaders across many middle-eastern nations argue that their moral codes, originating from similar passages found in the Qur’an, have reintroduced family and social cohesion into societies that have been corrupted by globalization. The Taliban rebuff such accusation and instead point, in disgust, to the degradation of women in western culture through pornography and Perhaps the most controversial article in the UDHR is Article 2, which states ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedom set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex …’
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