Unveiling Cross-Cultural Conflict: Gendered Cultural Practice in Polycultural Society

Abstract

Drawing on political theorist Bhikhu Parekh’s work, which lists the twelve most common cultural practices that give rise to clashes between cultures, Seyla Benhabib raises an important question: “How can we account for the preponderance of cultural practices concerning the status of women, girls, marriage and sexuality that lead to intercultural conflict?” Here she is referring to the overbearing weight that gender carries in relation to “hot” issues such as female circumcision, polygamy, arranged marriages, withdrawal of Muslim girls from school activities, the wearing of hijab by Muslim girls, and the subordinate status of women and all that it entails. This seems to suggest that cross-cultural conflict appears on the scene largely when it concerns issues of relations between the sexes, or of women’s and girls’ roles in particular communities. Practices of reproduction, family life, and sexuality are all coded, to a large degree, through our cultural systems of meaning.