Religion and the
origin of religion have been defined in multiple ways by different school of
thoughts but generally, it is defined as the belief system which validates
existence of supernatural beings that have a governing effect on life. In
sociology, its functions are also viewed differently by different schools as
Marxist sees it as a deception, functionalist views it as functional for the
dynamic equilibrium of society etc. Somehow, religion as an ideology has a very
profound effect on the societal relationship and in every social setting; it
plays the crucial roles of bringing social change and continuity even in the
post-modernist world. Especially in the South Asian context, sometimes being a
part of the culture and sometimes independent of culture, it has significant
impact on the peoples. Here religion provided the reason for the partition of
Indian subcontinent, rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, and sectarian violence in
Pakistan, radicalization of Islam in Maldives.
Religion had very
adverse impact on the social conditions of women and Feminist ideologies have
produced intensive literature on the plight of the women and causes for the
prevailing conditions and exploitation of women. Conventionally, Religion is
seen as male-affair and the glorification of male gods is shown in most of the religions.
Women are seen as the creation by men. As Anthony Giddens sees that religion is
a male affair in its symbolism and argues that “women are portrayed as created
from a rib taken from a man”. However, it is true that ‘women’ are not born;
they are created by patriarchal psychic of male. In the evolutionary
perspective if we will see the function of the religion then it is visible that
initially female deities and female priests were present in the society and
women were found central to the spiritual pursuit, but after the invasion of
Aryans and Semitics male dominated mythology came into prominence and finally
it turned into mostly monotheistic religion, which is fully male dominated.
Karen Armstrong sees this as the evolution of ‘male god’ in the society.
Feminist
theories like Marxian theory divide society into two classes and see religion
as a product of patriarchy unlike Marxian theories a product of capitalism.
Women and women’s labour is exploited by male for the fulfillment of their need.
Jean Holm has reviewed the ways in which female are exploited or
subordinated. She tells that while the
classical doctrines of many religions have stresses equality between men and
women like in Japanese folk religion and Islam. Women’s status in the society
is related to female sexuality. ‘Menstruation’ and childbirth are treated as
polluting in all the religions.
Religion
portrays women closer to god than men but they are not given position in the
power structure of the religious institutions. Mainly the role of the priests
is occupied by the male and women are provided differential treatment in
entering sacred places. They are provided with false consciousness about their
suffering that they will be compensated for their sufferings in the spiritual
spheres of the religion. Simon de Beauvoir in her book The Second Sex talks about the oppression of women in the religion
and compared it with the oppression in the capitalist society.
Radical feminist
like Simon de Beauvoir, sulasmith Firestone consider that gender inequality is
founded on the patriarchal institutions like marriage, family, and
glorification of reproductive role of women. Therefore, patriarchy is located
on the base; ideology, state, mode of production, education are influenced by
the culture of patriarchy. Therefore, in every sphere women are put into
disadvantaged position against men. So, more we are progressing in economic and
political sphere, more significantly gender is evolving into important
instrument of social inequality.
They advocate
that institution of marriage gives way to loss of control of women over her
body and mind. When man is demanding ‘sex’ from the women then it is a matter
of right but when women are asking for sex they are treated as slut. Further,
they consider gestation is a painful experience, where woman is forced to
torture her body. Heterosexuality is a patriarchal construct, which is
glorifying the idea of motherhood justifying to sexual division of labour
Maria Becker
equates women with ‘Dalits’ of India, Belhooks equates women with blacks of
Africa, who create ‘underclass’- which is further divided on the basis of race,
ethnicity and class. They are subjected to marginalisation, exploitation,
inequality from the beginning of the civilization to the contemporary times.
Religion is the patriarchal construct, which creates fear of god in human
beings to obey the system of patriarchy.
In sub Saharan
and North East Africa, in the name of religion, the genital part of women are
circumscribed, which has a very negative effects on the body of female for the
sake of female modesty and it is the violation of ‘universal ethics’ provided
to every citizen of the world known as Human Rights. It is forcibly done on the
female child. Many of the feminist thinkers were jailed for opposing this
religious practice like Nawal El Saadawi of Egypt. Men distort religious
doctrine to serve their own interests and to legitimize their oppression.
Slavery, prostitution and abortion are the cases where they are treated as the
second class citizens and they are deprived of their basic rights. These sorts
of discrimination are linked with the scriptures to get the justification.
In Hindu social
system, if we take ‘hierarchy’ as the structure and within the hierarchy
‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ as the two ‘Binary Opposites’ then we can understand
the position of women in the caste system. Hindu women can make the food and
other sacred activities impure and male has the responsibility to remain pure
to get social honor So, the female members in the time of menstruation cannot
enter the sacred places and prepare the food. They have to take bath before
preparing the food and after male members had taken the food then they have to
clean that place. They cannot even stand in front of the male members when they
are having food because; even the presence of women can pollute the food.
In some parts of
India, female sex ratio is very low. The reason for this low sex ratio is
abortion of female foetus in the contemporary times and killing of female
infants in the past. Indian scriptures say that son is the way through which
one can reach heaven. The demand for son in Hindu society gave female a status
of ‘second sex’ and their exploitation in the society remained a challenging question
in front of the society for centuries. Even after much legislation, the problem
of female foeticide is a big question in front of the policy makers. The main
reason for the failure of legislation is the differential impact of ‘modernity’
and modern values on the heterogeneous societies of India. Tradition is
reinforcing the archaic cultural value of the society and modernity remains
isolated in this sphere of social life. However this problem is not only among
the Hindus but also other religions have got influenced from these values.
However the
Hindu feminist movements has achieved success to the some extent in the area of
land ownership rights, access to education, representation in Panchayati Raj
Institutions and Urban Local bodies etc. The acceptance of ‘love marriages’ in
most of the parts of India and sending girls to the school is showing a good
sign for Indian society. Indian society is liberating from the prison of
patriarchy. The changes in the mindset of Indian society were influenced by the
impact of British colonialism in 17th century, and the influences of
modernist thoughts. Bengal Renaissance started reforms in social structure to
provide women more space in public life. People like Raja Rammohan Roy,
Dayanand Saraswati, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and others tried to interpret the
scriptures holistically to show the right path for change. These
socio-religious movements tried to soften the exploitation by pressing British
to pass Widow Remarriage Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act etc.
After
independence some of the women activists went to Pakistan and some others
joined Indian National congress and occupied power positions and the
constitution of India gave the equal rights to women as the Fundamental Right
and universal adult franchise to safeguard the women’s right. But the
establishment of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was the first
initiative in 1972 by Ela Bhatt to make significant change in the life of women
by providing training, technical aid to the women workers of the unorganised
sectors. Further anti-dowry campaign, protest against oppression of women by
various women organisation started.
The turn came
after the landmark judgement of Supreme Court in Shah Bano case (1985 SCR (3) 844), which gave Muslim women right to alimony, was turned down by Rajiv
Gandhi Government by passing a law. This act of the government changed the
scope of infusion of modern values in Muslim society, which is skewed in favour
of Muslim men. This was a great chance for bringing uniform civil code in
India. In 2010, a court in Delhi illegalised polygamy in Islam, when the
present wife is not sick or any other conditions which make her incapable of
producing children etc..
Patriarchy
exists in different forms all over the world and that ultimately defines
various forms of entitlements both in public sphere and private sphere on the
basis of gender criteria. Uma Chakrabarti writes that in India multiple forms
of patriarchy like Brahmin patriarchy, kshatriya Patriarchy, Dalit and Islamic
Patriarchy, explains the economic roles of women, their domestic roles and
their participation in public sphere activities with structure distinction. This multiplicity of patriarchy has given way
to various women’s movements in India emphasizing on equal pay for equal work,
regulation of female foeticide and infanticide, protection of women from
domestic violence, abolition of dowry, question of feminization of poverty and
so on.
Sociology of
family and Kinship today is not engaged in looking into functions and
dysfunctions of family rather from a gender perspective. Family is defined as a
product of patriarchy that is contributing for the domestication of women,
demarcation between public and private sphere activities and justification to
inherent inferiority of women by creating “Pink collar jobs” in modern
industrial society. Therefore, breaking the conventional tradition to the study
of division of labour in terms of modern organisation, mode of production,
structure of society, Feminist considers that patriarchy in different forms all
over the human history is determining,
defining unequal system of division of labour and different forms of entitlements,
which have the religious sanctions.
The picture is
not so gloomy in the world in the contemporary post-industrial society where
service sector is increasingly contributing to the national GDP and the service
sector is providing good opportunities for women. The transformation in the
position of women can be seen all over the globe. All religions are providing
some position to the women in the post-patriarchal societies. The reform
Judaism has allowed women to become rabbis since 1972. ‘New religious movement’ and ‘neo-spiritual’
movements does not discriminate between men and women. Many multinational
companies are being run by women and various acts for the safeguards of women
at workplaces are being passed by the government.
