Madagascar position paper for the United Nations General Assembly

¶ … Madagascar's exposure is, the problem needs to be understood. The problem is phrased as "The rise of Islamic regimes in Egypt." This phrasing makes no sense. The military is in charge of Egypt, following the takeover from the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. This is in the background material. A better phrasing is found in the text: "The rise of Islamic regimes in the post-Revolution Arab world." For some reason the writer of the document latched onto the qualifier "particularly in Egypt" and despite the fact that Egypt no longer has an Islamic regime has concocted the misleading topic. At any rate, Madagascar has a low level of exposure to this issue. Madagascar is only 7% Muslim (CIA World Factbook, 2014), and was not subject to the revolutionary politics of North Africa during the Arab Spring. Madagascar's Muslims are not Arab, but came to the country as laborers and slaves from Indonesia several centuries ago, or are recent arrivals from Zanzibar, Yemen or the Comoros (Islamic Focus, 2014). Madagascar's exposure comes from its position on the farthest fringes of the Muslim world. The nearest Muslim country is the Comoros, which was not subject to revolution and is a very minor player in the Muslim world. Egypt is the nearest Arab country, though most states in between have at least a Muslim minority. Madagascar is not a member of the African Union, so has limited political participation on the continent.

Madagascar is in a state of upheaval, but the political violence is not related to religious strife, and Muslims are not a large enough part of the population to be a strong, defined player in the political violence (Strategy Page, 2014). As such, Madagascar has not devoted much energy to commentary and study of the Arab Spring, but the government did make a statement at the United Nations in September, 2013 about those events. The Arab Spring was described by President Andry Rajoelina as "an illustration of legitimate aspirations of the people seeking better lives…and it is important that the world understands them as such." This statement closely mirrors the views of the current regime of its own rise to power. The disputed election at the end of 2013, and the new government that appears to be forming (Haufiku, 2014), may change the country's policy statement. Madagascar is therefore in a state of flux and not in a position to have an opinion about the Arab Spring or the rise of Islamic parties in North Africa.

Part II. Women's rights in Islamic countries is a longstanding issue. This issue is complicated by a multitude of factors. First, there is the fiction of universal human rights -- such rights are always granted by other humans as part of the broader social contract. This makes defining a position statement on women's rights a significant challenge, because each society will have its own interpretation, as the background guide notes. An attempt to impose Western values on other societies will be met with skepticism, as would any attempt by Islamic countries to impose their values on the West. So while there are a number of issues, there are limits on what foreign countries through the UN can do to impose their own values on other societies. Even within Egypt, there are significant divides in society with respect to women's rights, typically along religious lines (BBC, 2013).

Even if it is determined that the UN has the right to tell Muslims what to do -- a right Muslims themselves will deny -- there is the practical matter of implementing any sort of statement about women's rights. Female genital mutilation, for example, has been outlawed in Egypt since 2008 but is still widely practiced, because Muslims who practice it believe that Allah's law is more important than any civil law (BBC, 2008). Any person who refuses to accept civil authority in their local government is unlikely to care much about the statements of the international community.