BY RAPHAEL COHEN-ALMAGOR
ABSTRACT – This paper explores the limits of state intervention in regulating
cultural practices that harm women and girls. Accentuating gender
equality, the paper focuses on gender discrimination, denial of meaningful
education, and forced or arranged marriages. Such practices—exemplified
by child marriage and educational deprivation—constitute serious
violations of basic human rights as articulated in the UDHR, ICCPR,
ICESCR, and subsequent conventions protecting women and children.
Through an examination of discriminatory Pueblo tribal norms and the U.S.
Supreme Court case Santa Clara v. Martinez, as well as the forced marriage
patterns among Jewish-Yemenite immigrants to Israel in the 1950s, the
paper assesses when a liberal state is justified in overriding cultural
autonomy. Drawing on Rawls’s conception of justice, it argues that cultural
practices that undermine women’s equal dignity and opportunities cannot
be shielded by claims of cultural or religious protection and warrant state
action to safeguard vulnerable individuals.
KEYWORDS – culture – education – equality – forced marriages – gender
discrimination – Pueblo tribes – religion – women’s rights