A rebuttal.

• Author: Mayer, Ann Elizabeth
• Position: Response to article by John Strawson, winter 1997 Arab Studies Quarterly

In his article in the winter 1997 Arab Studies Quarterly, John Strawson purports to critique the second edition of my book Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics and ascribes to me various misguided positions regarding how human rights relate to Islamic culture and law. He does this despite my extensive publications, numerous public lectures, and years of human rights activism, all of which provide ample proof that I do not subscribe to any of the positions he attributes to me. Being allowed a short space for rebuttal, I can only highlight a few of his many attempts to place my work in an entirely false light.

Strawson would have it that I argue that Islamic culture is an obstacle to human rights (Strawson, p. 34) and, that, even worse, in my work "the dynamism of Islamic jurisprudence is put to death by a combination of cultural essentialism and Western positivism" (Strawson, p. 43). Nothing in my book remotely supports the premise of cultural essentialism. On the contrary, my publications show how unimpressed I am by Islamic cultural rationalizations for denying human rights. Throughout my book I express skepticism about whether any of the obstacles placed in the way of human rights actually derives from Islamic culture. Indeed, the reason for the subtitle, "Tradition and Politics" is that I propose that political interests, rather than Islamic tradition, ultimately dictate positions on human rights. See my conclusion on p. 177 where, in assessing Islamic human rights schemes, I say:

Their Islamic pedigrees are dubious . . . the pattern of diluted rights in the Islamic human rights schemes examined here should not be ascribed to peculiar features of Islam or its inherent incompatibility with human rights. Instead, these diluted rights should be seen as part of a broader phenomenon of attempts by elites - the beneficiaries of undemocratic and hierarchical systems - to legitimize their opposition to human rights by appealing to supposedly distinctive cultural traditions.

Persons who want my views on this point spelled out in capital letters might consult "Cultural Particularism as a Bar to Women's Rights. Reflections on the Middle Eastern Experience," in Women's Rights. Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds. (New York: Routledge, 1995), 176-88, and "Universal Versus Islamic Human Rights: A Clash of Cultures or Clash with a Construct?" Michigan Journal of International Law 15 (1994)...