A/67/287 of gender play a central role in people’s self-definition as a social collectivity”, 15 and permeates all aspects of life. 16. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern the tendency, orientalist as well as occidentalist, to essentialize culture. This runs contrary to facts and “overlooks the economic and political underpinnings of women’s subordination and the construction of culture within the dynamics of power relations at local, national and global levels” (A/HRC/4/34, para. 20). Like all social constructions, concepts of gender change over time, and according to socioeconomic and geographical contexts. Resisting cultural essentialism requires “the cultivation of a critical stance that ‘restores history and politics’ to prevailing as historical pictures of ‘culture’”. 16 17. Essentialist portraits of culture often depict culturally dominant norms as central components of “cultural identity”. Viewing culture and attendant beliefs, including customs, traditions and religious interpretations, as “static” obstructs the realization of women’s human rights because it presupposes that particular values, practices and beliefs are “intrinsic” to a given culture and, therefore, immutable. 18. Cultural norms presented in legal disputes or political debates, far from being neutral descriptions of a community’s way of life, are “expressions of power relations that are often limited to the dominant voices in a specific social interaction”. Such “articulations should be read as competing efforts to preserve certain social, economic, and political arrangements”. 17 19. Women not only physically reproduce the community by giving birth to new members; they are often also tasked with reproducing the dominant culture of these communities. 18 Frequently, the norms and practices assigned through unequal gender roles and rights are projected as essential core values of a particular community, centrally important to collective identity. Cast as the “privileged signifiers” of community differences, 19 women’s conformity to the status quo becomes equated with the “preservation of culture” and challenges to existing norms and practices equated with “cultural betrayals”. This has several consequences. Those contesting prevailing norms and practices to promote gender equality may be condemned as “cultural traitors”. Matters concerning women may remain bound by tradition even after other aspects of social life have undergone significant change. 20 Alternatively, cultural traditions that granted women certain rights, such as rights to/over land, may be weakened or discarded. 20. Scholars highlight that, ironically enough, the cultural practices being upheld today in many countries that experienced colonization are often those that were selected, promoted as general and privileged by the colonial powers. In addition, a number of “traditional” male leaderships derived their authority from colonial __________________ 15 16 17 18 19 20 8 Shaheed, p. 24. Narayan, p. 92. Celestine Nyamu, “How Should Human Rights and Development Respond to Cultural Legitimization of Gender Hierarchy in Developing Countries?”, Harvard International Law Journal, vol. 41 (Spring 2000), p. 406. See Nira Yuval-Davis, “The Bearers of the Collective: Women and Religious Legislation in Israel”, Feminist Review, vol. 4 (1980), pp. 15-27. Deniz Kandiyoti, “Identity and its Discontents: Women and the Nation”, Millennium — Journal of International Studies, vol. 20, No. 3 (March 1991), pp. 429-443. See Narayan. 12-45930