Gender, Rights and Cosmopolitanisms

This chapter argues that a gendered reading of the cosmopolitan debates points people to significant sites for exploring questions of cosmopolitanism in its many meanings. It discusses one particular case, that of the Malaysia women’s movement. The significance of the absence of gender concerns from ‘mainstream theorising around cosmopolitanism becomes apparent when people consider a series of highly influential feminist arguments about intersectionality, the mutually constitutive nature of gender, race and class. The end of the twentieth century saw many social movements around the world moving to articulate their central claims in the language of rights, especially that of human rights. A small group of professional tertiary-educated women, including anthropologist Norani Othman, Sisters in Islam was formed in 1988. It has had a large impact nationally, and within feminist circles globally, receiving many overseas invitations to speak and holding a very successful workshop at the Beijing Women’s Conference in 1995.