'The Burqa is just like a Maxi Dress': A Muslim Adolescent Perspective on Human Rights

Abstract

One of the original aims of the UK's Human Rights Act was to disseminate human rights values to ordinary citizens and foster a human rights culture. While research suggests that such a culture has yet to materialize, there are also indications that people broadly support the values underpinning the Human Rights Act. However, in a multicultural society it would be wrong to assume that different groups will interpret human rights in a uniform way. Instead, there are likely to be several coexisting human rights cultures that are shaped by a variety of normative frameworks. Adopting a legal-pluralist perspective, this study sets out to explore how Muslim adolescents experience human rights. Contemporary Western political discourse places great emphasis on the conflict between human rights and Islam, shaping young Muslims' own sense of self as torn between fundamentally incompatible normative influences. Muslim students from a school in Birmingham were invited to participate in a group deliberation about human rights issues. The discussion was based around vignettes foregrounding potential clashes between human rights and competing interests. A prominent theme emerging from the conversations was that the cultural practices of Muslim communities should not be confused with religious beliefs. The students felt very protective of their faith and were keen to portray Islam as liberal and pro-human rights. On the other hand, they acknowledged that there was a level of conflict between aspects of their religious beliefs and human rights but they also believed that it was possible to accommodate conflicting norms by assigning different spheres of influence in which they can legitimately prevail.