Moral absolutes and changing cultures
On the eve of the World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino caused a stir by launching into a passionate defence of the host nation Qatar, and criticising the attacks on them, which have come largely from the western nations, regarding their position on the LGBTQIA+ community there, and their treatment of the migrant workers who came to Qatar to build the stadiums (passports taken, 14-16 hour working days, unventilated, basic accommodation).
The conditions that the Qatari migrant workers lived(and live) in.
Many Qataris have gotten annoyed at western ‘disrespect’ to their culture. And I can see why. They have a way of life, and we’re coming in and telling them that they’re wrong and we’re right. Which we have a penchant for: Iraq, for instance, where we tried to supposedly instil democracy upon them when it suited us, killed the innocent and then left. Colonialism, same happened. But one thing is respecting culture. But if they aren’t respecting their own people, then does that give us justification to tell them how to run their countries? Surely human rights are more than a matter of opinion?
Qatar follows strict Sharia Muslim law, which is mainly used in family and inheritance law. In keeping with most islamic countries, homosexuality is illegal- here it’s punishable by death. Male guardianship laws deny women the right to make important decisions about their life. These laws aren’t in keeping with either our laws here, or the values of the vast majority of the UK. For us it seems abhorrent, unfair, and unacceptable. We believe that all love is equal, and that all genders and sexes are equal. But much of the Qatari population has grown up accepting inequality as law, and following a religion which believes in that, or at least believes that men and women have more strictly defined roles in society. So we’re stuck in a complicated situation: we want to help the Qatari, but do they want change? Some of the populace, especially those whose rights are denied do want change, many of them, especially the rich and powerful, undoubtedly don’t. The organisers of the world cup said “respect Qatari culture”. Is this culture? But allowing women the right to govern their lives seems like more than culture, at least to us.
It’s human rights. And often, the worst off will find it very hard to leave, due to a variety of reasons(monetary, family etc). So if you don't subscribe to the ideology, the fixed norm, there's trouble. Another factor is other countries' rules around asylum seekers which don't usually account for such reasons, although hopefully that will change in the near future.
On one hand, respect for the cultural norms elsewhere is so important. They say ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’. There is a lot we can learn from other ways of life, religions, and the rapid globalisation over the last 200 years has created a mixing bowl of cultures in many places. Mutual respect is an essential first step, and we will be better off from diversity of ideas and norms.
And this is different from going to another country, preaching ‘Human Rights!’, ‘Democracy!’, ‘Freedom’ and effectively saying: our way or the highway. We in the west have traditionally had very little respect or appreciation for the cultures we have torn up through our unthoughtful ways, and therefore you can’t blame the ‘third-world’ (again, another supposed superiority symbol) for treating our words, our criticism and our presence with suspicion. What must it be like to be told that you live your life the wrong way? That we’re right, and you’re wrong. It’s something that, living in the UK, we haven’t experienced much of on a nationwide scale.
So what are basic human rights, and where do we draw the line as to what we can have an opinion on that others don’t agree with. We’ve been wrestling with this question for a long, long time, and so far one of the biggest steps forward that we’ve made was the human rights convention, in 1946. They were effectively supposed to be a basic set of values that the whole world could agree on, and beyond them, countries were free do make whatever laws they wanted, and a nation could live however it wanted to. Taking a read on them, it’s clear that lots happens in Qatar, but also around the world, that doesn’t fit with the 30 articles. One of the articles say ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.’
Well, we could talk quite a lot about how that doesn’t happen in Qatar. The treatment of migrant workers, the restrictions on freedom of women, the imprisonment of the LGBTQIA+ community…None of these articles really get followed in Qatar, and there are very few places that you could say follow all of these laws. So does that deem these laws purposeless? No, it shouldn’t. We would be a better world if we had moral absolutes and values that the entirety of humanity just agreed on. On gender equality, there’s a whole other conversation to be had on whether being equal means the same laws being followed for men and women, or it allows for different laws.
It’s going to be a huge, huge challenge though. In such a polarised world, with such amazing cultural diversity, even following a basic set of values will be very difficult. What we see as absolute unquestionables in our world, are a matter of opinion in other places. A first step towards having moral absolutes would be respecting and appreciating other people’s way of thinking and living. In a way, this Human Rights Declaration is quite aspirational. If those basic rights were followed around the world, that would be a dream. But in order to get there, we need to make an effort to understand others first, and do this not as superiors, but as complete equals. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have opinions, that would be terrible. But we would be a better world if we had a basic set of rights and values that everyone subscribes to.
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