Cultural relativism and universal human rights tension in protection of the women's human rights: A debate on female genital mutilation

In this study, the place and limits of the concept of cultural relativism, which is one of the biggest debates against the claim of universality of human rights, will be discussed in terms of the protection of human rights. In many articles used as a source for this study, discussions against cultural relativism have been developed. Approaching the concept of cultural relativism, one of the main discussion areas of the study is not only against the claim of universality of human rights but also whether women, who are mostly the subject of cultural and traditional practices, constitute an obstacle to human rights. In addition to the debates on the declaring of culture and cultural practices as the reason for violations of women's rights by many circles, the issue of the use of culture in societies where women are in a secondary position as a control tool of male-dominated power will be explored. For this purpose, in the first part, the concepts of culture and cultural relativity will be defined and opinions on these concepts will be explained. In the second part, the concept of universal human rights and cultural rights will be analyzed and the concepts of "culture" and "tradition" as the source of resistance to human rights will be discussed. In the third chapter, the concept of cultural relativism will be discussed through women's rights, the place of female genital mutilation considered as a violation of rights, in the dilemma of cultural relativism and universality will be taken, and the relationship between culture and male-dominated power will be examined. In the conclusion part, in line with the findings of the previous sections, the limits of cultural relativism and whether it constitutes an obstacle to the universalization of human rights will be discussed and the place of cultural rights in the context of human rights will be examined.