"Our demands are unchanged: justice and freedom" and "A martyr's mother bellows: my children and I have no rights". Demotix/Maggie Osama. All rights reserved.As a fervent advocate of democracy and human rights, questioning their universality and their cultural specificity has proven to be very challenging. But driven by my anti-imperialist sentiments, I decided to push forward with this quest.
Democracy and human rights have been often perceived as the western solution to third world problems, without them, countries would fail to develop. Over the recent years, wars have been waged in the name of “democracy”, resulting in increased suffering and human rights violations – Iraq being a prime example.
Perceiving anything to be the absolute and only rightful solution is quite dangerous, regardless of whether it is faith, ideology or a political system. Put simply, it will quite often turn to arrogant certainty leading to radicalism, which justifies the dehumanization of those who do not follow the same ideas. This applies to democracies working hard to implement “democratic” values globally as well.
