By Zeynab Hosseini

Is it time for a change?

March 7, 2023 - 15:49

The concept of feminism was born in France at the end of the 19th century, developed in Western European countries and America, and then spread to other languages and countries around the world. It was formed to put direct pressure on decision-making institutions in the field of women, arguing that reforms from top to bottom were not enough. Feminist thought is now somewhat institutionalized in academia or universities, and popular feminist books are very successful.

However, feminism and its achievements for women are now being evaluated and criticized more than ever. Critics of contemporary feminism believe that feminists have turned women into permanent victims by naming and analyzing the harm done to women. They also criticize that feminism has started a gender war by documenting the conflicts and inequalities between men and women, to the extent that we are now facing the men's movement.

To what extent have international organizations in charge of women's rights, such as the United Nations and the CEDAW Convention, been able to provide a basis for women's exit from the vicious cycle of women's empowerment to a productive cycle?

It is true that today feminism has different flavors, mainly due to differences in the causes of concern and conditions of women around the world. But this question must be raised: now that the legal institutions of the United Nations have become a place for the reproduction of the Western idea of women and the standards of the Western white woman, should the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) - which is an international legal document that obliges countries to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in all fields and promote the equal rights of women and girls - be reviewed?

According to the latest data from the "Women of the World Report," which has been prepared every five years since 1990, after two centuries of struggle by feminist movements and human rights activists, no country has achieved gender equality in 2022. Violence against women and girls is still prevalent worldwide.

Talking about the effectiveness of CEDAW as an international legal mechanism is just a sweet dream. The truth is that until the attitude towards us, the position and function of women in human society and the universe is not corrected globally, supporting women's rights is meaningless. This is the reason why CEDAW has been ineffective from the beginning until now.

In addition to these cases, it should be added that the political and one-sided approach of CEDAW in interpreting the provisions of the convention and reporting from the member countries also blocks the way of the correct implementation of this document.

Now it is clear to everyone that the United Nations organizes the world and makes decisions based on liberal and Western ideas. The legal institutions around women are not exempt from this approach, and considering the dominance of the narrative of liberal and Western feminism over other narratives, the main focus of which is gender equality, the main focus of the CEDAW discourse is the equality of men and women, regardless of their differences in personality traits and physical functions. This demand for equality (similarity) instead of fulfilling women's rights in the discourse of Western experts has caused more discrimination against women.

Therefore, now more than ever, it is necessary and essential to criticize international institutions based on Western feminist schools. At the same time, we should review the consequences and achievements of feminism and examine the paradoxes of feminism through the lens of other philosophical and historical traditions of the East and West.
 

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