Exploring the Politics of Gender, Sexuality and Religion in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Questions of sexuality and gender have become central to contemporary debates on religion, and the limits that should be put on religious freedom at the national and international levels. Similarly, questions around religion and religious freedom have increasingly been shaping the direction and focus of debates on gender and sexuality. This intersection has recently been the subject of insightful scholarly works. Yet, the literature remains quite state-centered paying less attention to how public debates and judicial decisions on religion, sexuality and gender migrate, travel from one national context to another. It overlooks, in so doing, the impact these processes have on the shape and content of religious freedom and gender equality, legal and political notions, which have proven to be more malleable than expected. Likewise, works comparing and contrasting how and why different states approach the intersection between religion and gender are not numerous. This panel seeks to shed light on these transnational and comparative dimensions. It will do so by tackling some of the following questions: Through which questions and issues are debates around gender and religion activated (e.g. marriage, circumcision, body politics, abortion, homosexuality)? What can we learn from a comparative perspective on how these debates are regulated and about their outcomes? Are national models (gender regimes, Church-state relations) still relevant explanatory variables or should other factors be explored and appraised? How are these debates migrating from one context to the other, and how do they get transformed in the process? Who are the actors (e.g. individuals, courts, activists, non-governmental organization, etc.) enabling and shaping these debates?

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