Intersectionality in International Religious Freedom Policies

Abstract

In the context of prominent attacks on religious minorities in several countries, many Western governments have started to introduce the protection of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in their foreign policies. We argue in this research note that they have neglected the intersections of religion with other categories of difference, such as class and gender, when implementing these policies. The same applies to research on the international promotion of FoRB, which also largely misses an intersectional perspective. We use a case study on the international campaign to free Asia Bibi – a Christian woman in Pakistan, sentenced to death for blasphemy – to illustrate this blind spot and explore some of its causes and consequences. The main objectives of this research note are to raise awareness of intersectionality in foreign policy research, harness the concept of intersectionality for future research on the international promotion of FoRB, and urge foreign policy authorities to give greater attention to the diverse lived experiences of religious minorities when advocating on their behalf.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/oraf015
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Politics, History and International Relations
College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities > Aston Centre for Europe
Funding Information: The research for this article was supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (SRG2021/210997).
Additional Information: Copyright © The Author(s) (2025). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publication ISSN: 1743-8594
Last Modified: 19 May 2025 16:39
Date Deposited: 10 Apr 2025 14:23
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://academi ... oraf015/8136448 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2025-07
Published Online Date: 2025-05-19
Accepted Date: 2025-03-13
Authors: Jenichen, Anne (ORCID Profile 0000-0001-9787-5812)
Deka, Tusharika

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