The Attitude to Women in World Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

What is Religion?

The word ‘Religion’ encompasses on various beliefs, practises, oral traditions, scriptures, prophecies, ethics and sanctified places and the word also refers to a faith in higher power in most of the cases. Moreover, it also helps to know about the changes that had been occurred in lifestyle of people with the passage of time. It is estimated that their over 1000 distinct religions all around the globe, out of which three forth of the total population is covered by Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion.

Throughout the centuries, the belief of existence of god or something has a profound root in our society. Due to this there are various practices carried out in our society, out of these practices some were good, while other had a worst effect on our society. Throughout the human history, women had a deep devotional experience, had an outbreak with enlightened wisdom and have been spent their lives to serve others. There is often a dualism within religion which exalts women on the one hand, while demanding more rigorous displays of devotion on the other. The practices carried carrying out across the globe are majorly formed by men and continue to accord them more dominant roles. Men belonging from higher cast and more industrialized culture and those who have light tone skin are meant to speak more in institutionalized culture than women who have dark tone and those who belongs to lower cast and less industrialized religions.

Furthermore, now many rituals have been created by the feminist to celebrate the biological life stages of women in same way as done by various tribal societies from long time. They also now consider their bodies and biological changes as positive and more powerful. Moreover, women in every culture do play an important role in spiritual work. Nearly everywhere, many spiritual rituals performed by women like lighting the votive candles or divas, worshiping the ancestors, painting auspicious designs on the ground are usually carried out in their homes. As a mother, is the responsibility her to her children all precepts and values of religious cultures. Having a child may also help a mother to grow spiritually.

Women in Judaism

Judaism is among the oldest of the world’s religions. Within the United States, there are four main movements of Judaism, generally ranging from the most conservative to the most radical, these include Reformed, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist. These divisions have different attitude towards their women. Women in this religion were treated with high aspect and were also given number of opportunities. The religious identity of women was secondary to that of men because they were unable to bear the symbol of religious identity.

Moreover, the most prominent female figure in Judaism was Eve. However, like all other religions is also known of its sexiest and patriarchal aspects. Many rituals and practices were also formed by various female groups and they also manage their own group worship at the western walls. Moreover, the reform movement also introduced and age ceremony for girls and it also provided opportunities for girls to have spiritual education form the non-Orthodox rabbinic school. The reconstructionist tradition was very progressive in granting women rights with men, it has also welcomed gays and lesbians as rabbis daily prayer sung by Jews also includes a line also represents that Judaism values men more than females, although the extent of such inequalities in Judaism today varies widely, depending on the state and the denomination in question.

Historically, women held power in Judaism predominantly through their roles as mother and wife in private sector. During the first and the second period, they also get importance if they were judges, prophets and charismatic leader. A female monastic community was also started by them. Women were becoming active participation in Midrash - the ongoing process of interpretation of Bible. A significant contribution was also made by feminists in reinterpreting of the scriptures, developing gender-neutral and rituals. Despite of active participation women in all branches of Judaism, some women had also faced with the continuing patriarchal assumptions of traditional Judaism.

During the Hellenistic period, some of the patriarchal aspects of the tradition were also diminished with time, thus results in formation of new laws like the laws governing the family matters have been altered so that now women should also get some basic rights upon marriage as men. Some evidences also enforce the fact that before this period the ancient Israelite society was strongly patriarch. The preference of male offspring was more than that of female child. Other evidences also highlights the fact that the virginity of a women was so valuable that if the husband could prove that his new wife is not a virgin then he could return her to his father’s home, but if it is proved that she is a virgin and his husband had lied, results in the reacceptance of his wife by his husband. Adultery was also considered as a crime against the husband, not the wife, so the women were the only ones who were punished for their extra-marital sex.

Women in Christianity

In Christianity women played few leadership roles but not in churches. All the roles in the churches were subjected to men. In Roman catholic and the Orthodox churches, the chiefs and the priests were the men. The new testament gospels reveal that women were an important part of Jesus early followers while the traditional testament focuses that they were under the power of men. Thus, the old testament shows that women were dependent on men and have to live according to them, but the new testament depicts the equality between the two sexes. Women were slaves who have to obey their husbands as man was the head of the house.

However, with the passage of time the status of the women improved. As female were appointed to many ministry positions such as bishoprics and pastoral associate who did all the rituals in the Christian ceremonies. The women communities got devoted to the charity and social service functions rather than doing prayers and reciting poems. They work for the welfare of the society and their work focuses on health, education, social reform and helping the needy people. They organized all the activities in the churches and spend most of the time in bringing awareness about importance of the education and raising money for the churches. Later on, feminist theories developed which focuses on new ways about living the life and writing about the torture that women experienced.

Moreover, Christians were in favour of backlash because they thought that it ruined the cycle of the traditional families as they thought before they were independent and remained in the home they raised kids better and the relationships in the family were more strong. From the figure of Mary one can say that the women were seen an obedient creature who work according to the will of the god’s plans. The protestant churches which supported sexual activity give importance to the women about birth control. This leads to unwanted pregnancies and for those who were uneducated and who suffer poor health and poverty. In roman and catholic churches there was a continuous debate over abortion and rape.

In the nineteenth century, there were many opportunities for the women’s education but still they were not given the leadership roles in the society. But in Rome in a fresco there is painting of seven women who has different meals and one of the women lifted his hand in such a way celebration that women have leadership in the churches.

Women in Islam

Islam means submission to the will of god, which Muslims believe is specified in the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslim people. The Islamic people live their life according to the Quran and Quran suggest that it was first a woman who believes in the teachings of Muhammad prophet. In comparison to other religions explored so far, the use of gendered imagery for the divine is opposed in Islam religion. A feminist scholar Leila Ahmed also observed that the study of Islamic discourse regarding women is always partly symbolic. Moreover, Islamic discourse about women also includes a large variety of issues and concerns than simply the status of women. The Bouthania Shaaban also mentioned that the first person to believe in the truth of Muhammed’s teachings was a woman. The prophet himself had 11 wives, some of them simultaneously. The Qur’an also recounts that god ordered Muhammad to offer his wives the option of divorcing him, which he died, and that all of them have declined the offer. Thus, woman play an important role in establishment and growth of Islamic religion. Some Muslim activities are trying to awake women to their rights and help them lead a better life. Many passages in Qur’an also shows that gender is a gender concern in Islam, while other passages also relate to women’s bodies, their sexuality and reproductive capacity, their sexual morality, how they should behave, how men should behave in relation to them. The Qur’an mentions a number of virtuous women as exemplars of faith, but Muhammad’s wives have a special status in the Qur’an.

In some Muslim societies, woman is kept in purdah (hidden), both within the home and behind veils), segregated, excluded from paid employment, and other interaction with the outside world. Women in Islamic religion are allowed to coerce into marriage without their consent by their father or grandfather. Women, unlike men are not expected to pray five times a day because of women alleged ritual impurity during mensuration. While, some religious practices are often performed by women to expand their horizon beyond the four walls of their homes. These practices include reciting passages from Qur’an and hadith, reciting prayers, making pilgrimages to the local tombs and places where miracles are believed to have occurred. Moreover, women are the majority of participants in spiritual cults, consistent with the belief that women are more closely connected with the spirits than men. Life cycle events such as births, puberty marriage, divorce, and death usually include Islamic related rituals. Where female circumcision is practiced, it is believed to be mandated by Islam.

Women who resists these highly gender discrimination laws are beaten. Under principles of male guardianship, husbands are permitted to beat their wives for refusing to do their work. Moreover, women and girls are killed by their relatives and brothers, if they are suspected to losing their virginity before their wedding night as they have destroyed their families honor. It is indisputable that the so-called Islamic laws instituted by the Taliban violate the basic rights of women and it has also introduced a virtual gender apartheid. Women in this religion are also required to wear full length shrouds, called burqa, that completely covers their bodies including their faces, wrists and ankles, whenever they are in public and if they do not follow these rules they are beaten. Islamic women are also prohibited from voting or holding public office. They are only allowed to go places where men are not present like hospitals. As we saw earlier, the practices like seclusion and veiling of women have developed within the Islamic societies, but these are not matters of uniform Islamic law. In fact, if the women are pilgrimage to Mecca then they are prohibited from veiling, for the pilgrimage is ruled by principles of social equality, whereas, veil are associated sometimes with people of higher rank.

In general, the mystical ways has offered Muslim women more opportunities than orthodox path to express their spirituality.

Conclusion

To conclude the essay, it is seen that in most of the cases, women are excluded from their role of authority, though they can play an essential role in some religions. Women are often denied to train or conducts the rituals for the community, while the other thing like preparing food for ascetics, lighting the ritual candles and the cleaning of holy places are done by women. On the other hand, in many cultures, women’s physical characteristics have been eroticized and are considered very alluring.