In the workshop in Chiangmai, we focused on the legal and political struggles around the concept and practice of the right to religious freedom in post-colonial societies of the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. Part of the aim of our project is to track the contested and multivalent meanings and histories of the right to religious liberty in non-western societies, with special attention to how the development of this concept in Europe, the United States, and international law continues to shape debates in non-western parts of the world. The workshop papers addressed the following issues:
- legal contestation surrounding religious freedom in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia;
- the role of global norms of religious freedom in regional debates;
- the social, political and historical contexts of conflicts related to these issues (such as the Ayodhya or Ahmadiyya controversy);
- legal and political contestation surrounding the rights of religious minorities; and
- family and personal status law in relation to debates over religious freedom.