A/72/155 deeply affected by extremism, to the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held in March 2017. 9 10. Women’s rights are not an add-on to the fight against fundamentalism and extremism — they are an essential part of that fight, without which it cannot succeed. “Every step forward in the fight for women’s rights is a piece of the struggle against fundamentalism”. 10 11. Secularism — the separation of religion and state — is also a critical piece of the struggle against fundamentalist and extremist ideologies that target women, especially those that claim a religious basis. 11 It creates or preserves space for women and minorities to challenge those ideologies and to enjoy their cultural rights without discrimination. Secularism finds its home in diverse forms in all regions of the world. It does “not mean the absence of religion but rather a state structure that defends both freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief, where there is no state religion, where law is not derived from God and where religious actors cannot impose their will on public policy”. The divide is not “between the religious and secular, but between the anti-secular and those with secular values”. 12 As one organization makes clear with its name, “Secularism is a Women’s Issue” (SIAWI). The organization notes: “[T]he defense of secular values … is a precondition for the struggle for women’s rights … The link between the rise of fundamentalism and the erosion of secular space is very clear to us ”. 13 A. Defining and understanding fundamentalism and extremism 12. Women human rights defenders have long worked to conceptualize fundamentalism and organize against it. Fundamentalisms are: “political movements of the extreme right, which in a context of globalization… manipulate religion, culture or ethnicity, in order to achieve their political aims ”. 14 They usually articulate public governance projects, in keeping with their theocratic visions, and impose their interpretation of religious doctrine on others as law or public policy, so as to consolidate social, economic and political power in a hegemonic and coercive manner. 15 13. Cultural fundamentalists often seek to erase women’s cultures, as well as the syncretic nature of culture and religion, and aim to stamp out cultural diversity. 16 Recognizing, defending and celebrating the diversities of women and women ’s cultural expressions are critical means of defying cultural fundamentalism. __________________ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17-12043 Submission from MADRE and The Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, City Un iversity of New York Law School. Zeinabou Hadari, cited in Karima Bennoune, Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism (New York, W.W. Norton and Company, 2013), p. 82. Submissions from Association Femmes Contre les Intégrismes and Femmes solidaires. Gita Sahgal, “Secular space: bridging the religious-secular divide?”, 13 November 2013. Secularism is a Women’s Issue, “Who we are and our aims”, 28 March 2007. Marieme A. Hélie-Lucas, “What is your tribe? Women’s struggles and the construction of Muslimness”, in Women Living Under Muslim Laws: Dossier 23-24, Harsh Kapoor, ed. (London, 2001), pp. 49 and 51. Jessica Horn, “Christian fundamentalisms and women’s rights in the African context: mapping the terrain”, p. 1. Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, “Fundamentalism and the Challenge to Women’s Rights”, Gender and fundamentalisms: proceedings of the Gender Institute on gender, cultures, politics and funda mentalisms in Africa”, Fatou Sow, ed. (Dakar, 2015). 5/23