The Paradox of Cultures
The sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne, Germany, shed light on problems that the German integration policy had ignored for too long. In the debate following the events, one side used a critique of Islamic gender norms and a discriminating view of women shared by the perpetrators in or...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2019
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| In: |
Religion in gender-based violence, immigration, and human rights
Year: 2019, Pages: 1-28 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne, Germany, shed light on problems that the German integration policy had ignored for too long. In the debate following the events, one side used a critique of Islamic gender norms and a discriminating view of women shared by the perpetrators in order to argue against accepting refugees and granting asylum in Germany. The other side condemned this as abusing sexism for the purposes of a racist ideology. They pointed out the existence of widespread sexual violence in German society and how this is shielded by projecting it onto Islam and Muslim immigrants. What was overlooked was the fact that immigrant women, and those who do not conform to their communities’ gender norms, were those most affected by disrespect towards women and the harmful cultural practices of some immigrants. To ignore this reproduces a racist and (post-)colonial division of humanity into those who deserve an emancipated life and those whose rights are violated without much indignation. As opposed to such a cultural relativistic approach, the author seeks to propose integration policies that are based upon individual human rights, including rights for minors, women, and nonconformists within their communities, regardless of origin and cultural background. |
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| ISBN: | 0429945361 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion in gender-based violence, immigration, and human rights
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.4324/9780429487231-54950 |