Cultural Relativist Argument Analysis

Therefore, cultural relativist argument is normatively vacuous and without content because it is used to legitimatize their violation of human rights and avoid solving harmful practices such as torture. States that encourage the language of culture relativism over the universality of human rights laws promote unequal and oppressive patriarchal structures. Fundamental rights of individuals which are denied due to cultural relativism differ from state to state. This is certainly the case when it comes to women’s human rights, which become compromised, if not totally sacrificed in the name of cultural practices. At the global level, international human rights law and other instruments (declarations and policy frameworks) see women’s rights as a key value, universally applicable and legally binding but, unfortunately, they are inadequately implemented. So, the implementation of human rights should be universal and non-selective. For more clarity, I will give a concrete example to show how a cultural relativist would implement a certain human right differently from a Universalism. Women could be a good example as they suffer of many serious problems in that violent practices can be justified in the name of traditions. For example, Female genital mutilation is one of the well-known practices, which can be justified as cultural and religious …show more content…
In the Battle of Uhud (3 AH/625 CE), there were a lot of casualties on the Muslim side and many women were widowed and children orphaned. The first part of the above verse (4:3) states: “And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly with the orphans, marry of the women who seem good to you, two or three or four." This verse came as a solution to prevent the mismanagement of the orphans’ wealth by their male guardians. It is clearly concerned with dealing with orphans and wives