Sympathetic distrust: Cultural diversity and the sexual autonomy of women

An increasing number of feminists agree with Susan Moller Okin’s claim that multiculturalism is ‘bad for women’ (Okin 1998; 1999), because it locks them up within the confines of their traditional, often patriarchal communities and hands them over to the power of the men within that community. Okin was the first in a long line of Western authors who questioned the feminist credentials of multiculturalism. One of them is a former Dutch politician, Ayaan Hirsi Ali