GENDER, FEMINISM AND RELIGION

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 17^th 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.