Human rights vs. Culture

As discussed in the last post, women who come of age in the village are forced to have sex with specially trained men in preservation of cultural convention. The men (called fisi, also meaning hyena) perpetuate the male dominated practice which women have little or no say in. Under the Banda regime, these traditions were propped up, as was the power of women in society who were recognized and recruited to perform in Banda's mbumba (clan or family) as his traveling dance troop.

Ulrika Ribohn gives an interesting argument in Democracy of Chameleons explaining how the influx of Western ideas of universal human rights have clashed with the traditional ideas of roles and identities for men and women. She argues that men in traditional villages tend to accept human rights when it benefits them, excluding women from the equation. When human rights clashes with the hold of power men have on women in the village setting, western ideals are seen as intruding:

"An acceptance of human rights would imply an acceptance of gender equality. By
arguing that human rights and 'culture' are in opposition, and at the same time
that women are the keepers of 'tradition', they exclude women from human rights
and gender equality. In other words, men feel they should get human rights while
women should maintain 'culture' and only get those rights that do not interfere
with the existing gender structure" (2002).

Thus traditional practices such as fisi continue today even as political leaders condemn the practices:

"Practices such as gwamula, fisi and others may have been acceptable in the
past, but today they clash with the values of freedom and equality which are
part of our newly embraced democracy" - President Bakili Muluzi (The
Monitor, 10 October 1995).

Is it the responsibility of the world to attempt to change the culture of traditional Malawi when their cultural practices are what we perceive as "immoral"? Should western ideals be promoted and at what cost if they are? What effects are there from changing the roles of men and women in society? Don't we find a backlash in America to liberal concepts such as gay marriage, feminism, and other lifestyles which go against traditional conservative sentiments? We should certainly expect a similar backlash in Malawi.