Cultural Relativism and Okin



Cultural Relativism and Okin

Introduction

Cultural relativism is defined as the idea that the culture is not a unique thing; however it is relative to something. The main idea behind the term is that whenever someone talks about anything, then he talks according to his culture. There are many people in this world, but they belong to different cultures and civilizations. Thus, they spend their life according to their culture and civilization.

In some cultures, a specific practice may be considered as good, but it is possible that the very same practice is not considered the same way in some other culture. Therefore, the people are associates with their culture and civilization. In the past years, there has been a huge debate on the topics like cultural relativism and assimilation of minorities into cultures of majority.

In a country, people of that country as well as of other countries, i.e. immigrants reside. The locals of a country who are in majority practice the culture of their country which is the culture of majority, while those who have migrated from some other country practice the culture of their country (Howson, 2009).

Here, there have been two opinions. Some people are of the opinion that immigrants and minorities should not be allowed to practice their cultures, i.e. they should adopt the local culture of the country they are living in. On the other hand, some are of the opinion that immigrants and the minorities should be allowed to practice their culture (Rachels, 1986).

Discussion

The debate on the topic whether minorities should be allowed to follow their culture or not, has intensified in the past days. Another aspect in this regard is the topic of women rights. Most of the people of the west are of the opinion that women belonging to minority groups should not be allowed to practice their culture. As a result, steps like ban on wearing of headscarves by Muslim women in some European countries were taken.

In this context, a book titled “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” was written by Susan Moller Okin. As the title suggests, this book is written regarding women and whether adaption of multiple cultures is good for them or not. According to Oken, most of the cultures are the ones in which men have an upper hand over women. She thinks that men seize the rights of women. She had referred in her book the permission given by the French government to bring multiple wives into country, until the number of polygamous families in Paris reached 200000. Later on, considering large families as a strain on the state, the French government announced to recognize only one wife and consider all other marriages annulled. Then she raises the question that what will happen of the rest of the wives and children. In her view, the government overlooked the view of women regarding polygamy, and when they found it difficult to manage large families, they changed their decision. She says that there are two ...