A “rising tide” of politicised religion is impeding women’s rights movements worldwide, including in the UK, a global think tank has said.

A new report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) highlights how women’s rights campaigners are leading resistance against anti-democratic movements, but face “growing backlash” from politicised religion.

It said most secular feminists and scholars agree the “formal or informal role of religion in the political system enhances threats to gender equality”.

The research, based on interviews with activists from around the world, concludes that political religion is “not only central to contemporary backlash against gender equality but also to attacks to democratic institutions”.

ODI: Politically institutionalised religion “likely to resist progressive policies”

ODI said “anti-gender equality politics” is “often fuelled by the influence of politicised religion”. When democratic space is weak, women’s ability to challenge religious authority is impeded because “they cannot advocate or engage in collective action safely, public debate is curtailed and recourse to justice free from discrimination is less likely”.

The report said politically institutionalised religious authorities which can exercise power through law, courts or government office are “likely to resist progressive policies or bring in regressive reforms”.

ODI gave examples of women’s rights movements threatened by the Christian right in Latin America and Africa; Islamism in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Pakistan; and Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India. It said women in these countries find their ability to challenge the “patriarchal interpretations of religion” upheld by religious authorities is “constrained by limits on democratic inclusion and civic space”.

The report said in contexts “where religious authority is more institutionalised politically, reforms in doctrinal matters – often family laws and sexual or reproductive rights, which invoke deeply held and often highly conservative interpretations of religion – are more difficult”.

The report also highlighted the dangers faced by secularist activists. It said in south Asia, “avowedly secular activists have been threatened and killed by extremists for holding ‘atheist’ views”.

Women are “first casualties” of fundamentalist demands

ODI said Islamic, Hindu and Christian fundamentalist movements “have extensive transnational reach, often reinforcing identity politics in domestic contexts”. It highlighted how these movements “challenge or undermine” women’s rights while using “threats to religious freedom and discrimination against their faith as mobilising rhetoric”.

The UK is among the countries affected by rising religious fundamentalism in politics. ODI interviewed UK secularist and feminist activist Pragna Patel, who explained how Hindutva, Sikh nationalism, and Islamist movements have impacted the south Asian diaspora in the UK. She said minority women have to grapple with religious fundamentalism as well as faith community “gatekeepers” with a “conservative and even misogynist and homophobic religious agenda”.

Patel expressed concerns that religious groups aim to “control their local constituencies”, “contain women”, and promote a “homogenous” religious identity, yet they have gained state recognition via the UK’s “multi-faithism” policies.

The report highlighted how Islamic fundamentalists in the UK use “freedom of religion” arguments to call for more faith schools and laws to accommodate their religious values, while feminist critics see this as the “imposition of a rigid and conservative faith upon individuals, particularly girls”.

Patel said women are the “first casualties” of these “anti-rights and anti-democracy” demands, and the political left in Britain is unable to “respond effectively to the challenge posted by religious fundamentalism”.

She said “transnational solidarities” between feminists would “support women to recognise the political imperatives behind identity-based politics and the dangers of religious fundamentalism, and share resistance strategies”.

The report concluded that a state’s commitments to secular principles “remain critical to support women in countering the political power of religious authorities” as feminists “rely heavily on secular institutions, such as secular legal and constitutional frameworks, to advance their claims and hold back the rising influence of politicised religion”.

NSS: “Feminism and secularism have always gone hand in hand”

National Secular Society head of campaigns Megan Manson welcomed the report.

“Feminism and secularism have always gone hand in hand,” she said.

“ODI’s report is a necessary wake-up call to defend secular, democratic principles from the growing political influence of religion we’re seeing worldwide.

“States founded on universal human rights, not religious dogma, are the only context in which women’s rights can survive and thrive.

“The right of secularist and feminist campaigners to challenge religious institutions, without fear of persecution or violence, must be robustly upheld.”