Understanding Gender and Culture Relations

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Are women better than men? Is French culture superior to Moroccan culture? Such questions are silly but pertinent. They reflect largely subconscious elements of human mentalities that interact with sediments of economic and political experiences. In the colourful market economy, everything has a price tag and is advertised as “better thanÀ other commodities. In the political arena, there is hardly any political party referring to others as an “alternative optionÀ. Hence, perceived differences are almost automatically valued.

Our mentalities provide little room for enjoying diversity as a key element of quality of life. It took the international community 20 years to agree on the need to preserve bio-diversity as an essential factor for the survival of our planet. Public opinion quickly followed. Recent agreements on cultural diversity, however, are very far from being followed by public opinion. United Nations and UNESCO Declarations or even Conventions on “The Right to be DifferentÀ or on “Cultural DiversityÀ establish the right to cultural self-determination without any other discrimination than the need to respect the rights of others.

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