This view is defended from a feminist perspective with especial vigor by
Susan Okin, for whom feminism and multiculturalism are clearly in tension
(Okin 1998 ). Far from thinking that the liberal state should protect minority
cultures, Okin argues that it should act positively to discourage certain
cultures from perpetuating their traditions because they do not accord
women equal dignity or consider that women should have the same oppor-
tunity to live as fulWlling and as freely chosen lives as men. Minority group
rights exacerbate rather than resolve the problem of human development:
In the case of a more patriarchal minority culture in the context of a less patriarchal
majority culture, no argument can be made on the basis of self-respect or freedom
that the female members of the culture have a clear interest in its preservation.
Indeed, theymightbe much better oVif the culture into which they were born were
either to become extinct (so that its members would become integrated into the less
sexist surrounding culture) or, preferably, to be encouraged to alter itself so as to
reinforce the equality of women—at least to the degree to which this value is upheld
in the majority culture. (Okin 1999 , 22 – 3 )
Cultures that practice female genital mutilation, give women or girls no say in
choosing a marriage partner, or raise women to serve men, should not be
protected. They should not even be tolerated but encouraged—or forced—to
reform themselves. Ideally, for Okin, this should be done in a way that gives
women themselves the opportunity to participate in the transformation of
their cultural communities. (Here she is sympathetic to the arguments of
Shachar 2001 , and Friedman 2003 .) While she is well aware that state power is
open to abuse, even when the intention is to ameliorate oppression, Okin
nonetheless holdsWrmly to the view that the use of that power is necessary to
ensure that the interests of women are not subordinated to the interests of
particular cultural groups. And although she admits the importance of
recognizing the complexity of cultural communities, which are not always
sharply separated from the wider society or from each other, and that many
women belong to more than one community, this does not lessen the need to
judge cultures by the moral standards she holds signiWcant. These are,
broadly speaking, the principles of liberal feminism (see also Okin 2002 ,
2005 ; for a critique see Kukathas 2001 ).
This stance is adopted even more stridently by Brian Barry, who sees in the
claims of multiculturalism not the appeal to respect for diVerence but the
pleadings of cultural relativism. For him, this simply will not do. The
principles of liberal egalitarianism have universal validity; and all societies,
including the communities within them, must be judged by liberal standards.
586 chandran kukathas