Yet a key debate concerns the legitimacy of these assumptions about both culture and religion. Culture is seen as holding harmful practices such as FGM, containing barriers to gender equality, and being hostile or intolerant to other groups, including other religious groups or religious minorities. In the second instance, the level of ideas, values, and norms is often what is highlighted in human rights discourse, but in a way that is fixed, unchanging, and most often, as an obstacle to human rights. Looked at in this light, culture can give us an idea of what the manifestation of freedom of religion looks like as a lived experience, and conversely, a lack of cultural expression can serve as an indication of the more subtle ways FoRB may be restricted. Therefore religion or belief, which reveals the most profound of meanings that humans carry-their origins, their purpose on earth-is naturally manifested through the creation of culture and the adaption of material objects, through the use of symbolism, places of worship, and sermons. In the first instance, cultural expression is the human way of responding to the impact the world has on our lives, on the tensions we may feel between ourselves and our surroundings, and on altering material forms in a way that reflects meaning back at us, through music, the arts and books. On these two levels, culture interacts with, influences, and is influenced by, religion, and therefore provides lessons for the advancement of FoRB. While there are many different understandings of culture, this paper will look at culture on two levels: the level of expressive forms, for example through music, the arts, heritage, and cultural places, and on the level of ideas, the non-physical ideas, belief systems, values, and norms that may govern social behavior. Therefore, to challenge the idea that not only is there a relationship between culture and religion, but this relationship can be a positive one that we associate with FoRB, a wider understanding of what culture is must be included. The starting point and centre of discussion for this paper is culture, because it is clear that the distinction between culture and religion is based on a view of culture as regressive, static force from which these violations and discrimination arise. There are many starting points to examine this relationship and many intricacies to this relationship of culture, religion, and FoRB, which is never linear and too extensive for one paper. This article will demonstrate this by examining our ideas on culture, how it is used by and for religion, and how this can provide lessons for our understanding of FoRB. Religion, culture, and human rights do not exist in isolation, but affect and influence each other, sometimes in negative ways, but very often in positive ways that can assist in the understanding and promotion of FoRB. While acknowledgement of this interaction might throw into question this particular strategy of distinction to promote human rights, it can open up other avenues for a more positive understanding of the way we understand FoRB, culture and religion. However, this attempt to smooth over incompatibilities between human rights values and religion runs into problems when it is faced with the reality that in many cases, this distinction between culture and religion is not so distinct, with cultural practices becoming “religionized” and religious ideas and spaces becoming part of the culture. What is insinuated is that culture is the problem, not religion. In an attempt to mitigate this clash between the universal standards of human rights and the claim to freedom of religion, a distinction is therefore drawn between culture and religion. In response, many human rights advocates, as well as more “moderate” voices within the same religious groups as those claiming FoRB, argue that such human rights violations or discrimination against women are not actually mandated by religion, but rather they are a cultural practice. Freedom of religion is often invoked to defend human rights violations and to protest against the introduction of provisions providing for gender equality. The common connection that we make between culture and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is often a negative one.
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