Overcoming Conflict Between Religious and Cultural Freedom and Women's Rights in Africa

Abstract

Scholarship is generally divided between those who view female circumcision as a religious ritual to be observed, and those who consider the practice as cruel and human right abuse. This lends credence to the ethical question: what should be done when the exercise of the rituals of female circumcision, which is central to African Traditional Religion, entails transgression of fundamental rights? Relying on John Rawls' model and rights based approach. This study examines African religious landscape characterized with this disagreement. With an insight provided into understanding this conflict, a criterion on what should constitute an appropriate interaction is thus supplied.