I'm planing a comparative essay on non-Western feminist law reform (or at least law reform efforts). I'm intending to examine how culture is negotiated and constructed, with the goal of showing that enforcing equality rights does not necessarily mean abandoning the local legal system in favour of Western liberalism. Basically I had this conversation with someone who insisted on the cultural specificity of Human Rights, and while I agree to some extent, I think there can be non-Western conceptions of rights that can function reasonably well alongside Western Universal Human Rights. I don't think it's true that the Western legal and cultural tradition is the only one that makes room for some form of fundamental rights based on respect for human dignity. And I don't think that non-Western legal and cultural traditions are any more inherently given to supporting inequality than Western ones. Culture is always contested, so it depends on whose vision of the culture you're giving weight to. Anyways, the conversation got me riled up and now I'm writing a paper on it.
However, I haven't found much in terms of source materials as yet, at least not in traditional legal sources. I've still got a lot more research to do, but I was wondering if anyone here could recommend some good sources on the topic, especially any writings on women activists in India, South Africa, Egypt and Iran. But any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
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That sounds like a great paper to write! I don't have many suggestions about where to learn about legal reform, but in terms of discussing the assumption of 'culture' being what gets in the way of equality, I find that philosopher Uma Narayan (her 1997 book, and several articles) is great.
Not clear what you mean by law reform in this context. There are tons of fantastic provisions in constitutions all over the world protecting gender equality. There are also many great laws, many of which were the result of law reform efforts. It would be very difficult to locate a law reform effort that was not heavily influenced by Western cultural mores -- if nothing else, through the donors who fund the reform effort (and bring in their experts).
Are you looking for legislative approaches to gender equality in non-Western countries? Or non-Western legal approaches to gender equality. The streets of repressive patriarchies the world over are papered with the former; the latter would be much more difficult to find.
While it's not specifically related to law reform, you might wish to look at some of the work done by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen on the 'capabilities approach' to human rights. The approach seeks to counter the cultural specificity of human rights discourse and it looks at rights through a developmental lens. It is arguably a more universalist, less Western/liberalist conception of fundamental rights and how they can/should be protected.
Just typing Nussbaum and Sen's names into google ought to give you a good reading list.
Good luck with your essay!