Religion Has Institutionalized Gender-Bias
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
28 November
2022
The news is that Delhi's iconic Jama Masjid restricted the entry of unaccompanied girls but rolled back the decision under pressure.
Jama Masjid, Delhi
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That Islam
is misogynistic needs no further elaboration. But when it comes to the entry of
women into a shrine of any faith, innumerable restrictions are imposed on her.
Whether or not she's menstruating, whether she has come with her brother,
boyfriend or husband, is she young, middle-aged or old, is her dress too
revealing or is she wearing loud make up; all sorts of silly, nay
objectionable, questions are raised by the contractors of faiths? The question
is: What makes all religions so antagonistic to women?
Our
troglodyte ancestors concocted super myths, albeit primitive. Then came all
deranged prophets who 'divinised' ( to borrow Carl Gustav Jung's term) them
after their own image as all were men. By the way, isn't it bizarre that not a
single prophet has been a woman?
So, right
from the advent of human civilization and its religious history, it's man all
the way. Women naturally got relegated to being mere appendages.
Thousands
of years of male behavioural supremacy culminated in women's religious
subjugation.
Women's
spiritual enlightenment was always doubted and frowned upon. Kevin Douglas
Osborne wrote in his seminal essay, " Gender bias in the mystical realm,
" that even an enlightened soul like Rabia Basri and Kashmiri female Sufi
saint Lal Ded (who often roamed around au naturel) had to experience gender
bias coming from male Sufis. Even a man like Rumi believed that a woman would
never be able to reach the apotheosis of enlightenment however hard she would
try!
The great
Anwari believed that a woman could never become a Hafiz-e-Quran as Allah didn't
give her the ability to memorise all 6, 234 verses in the Book. Sub-continent's
'evolved' men Tulsidas and Kabir were also disdainful of women. Kabir
infamously wrote, "Naari Ki Jhaain Padat Andha Hot Bhujang / Uss Purush
Ki Kya Gati Jo Nit Naari Ke Sang " (Even the king cobra would turn
blind if the mere shadow of a woman falls on it/ Imagine the plight of a man
who has to live with a woman day in and day out).
Matadeen
Gupta and Professor Grearson, English linguist of Central Indian dialects, were
of the view that Kabir originally used the word BAARI which later became naari
because Kabir didn't write anything as he was unlettered. The obsolete meaning
of Baari in early Hindi was: a widow. The word is still in vogue in Bithur and
Bundelkhand region. Kabir should have had a modicum of decency and sensitivity
in treating a widow, esp. when he himself was a Brahmin widow's love child.
Tulsidas wrote, “Dhor, Ganwaar, Pashu, Shudra, Naari / Sab Taadan Ke
Adhikari“ (Drum, illiterate, yokel and a woman deserve to be beaten).
Iran's highest religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini equates women with
animals.
If such sick mentality persists, how can a
woman get entry into a mosque or temple and if at all she gets, she might even
be raped by the priests.
We're too
prejudiced and gender-biased. Religion has institutionalized this bias.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian….
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religion-gender-bias/d/128506
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