At this point, the anticolonialists were the universalists, and they too spoke in the name of humanity. Rejecting the relevance of cultural difference, they argued that, while colonial clauses may be acceptable in agreements on 'road traffic, customs duties or narcotic drugs', they were out of place in a covenant devoted to human rights. Women, including women representing countries with Muslim majorities, played a particularly significant role in undercutting Cassin's paternalistic arguments. Iraq's delegate, Bedia Afnan, wondered how 'the degree of evolution of a people could prevent it from enjoying rights' that Cassin himself had acknowledged were 'inherent in human nature'. Women had been granted equal rights in Syria, Iraq and Egypt, where 'the tradition of Islam was allied with political freedom', she argued, but not in the dependent territories, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. For opponents of the colonial clause, it was colonialism, not cultural or religious difference, that was the barrier to the universal extension of human rights.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 271