The Subjugation of Women in Religion
A friend's post earlier today (ironically inspired by one of my posts) inspired a post about the subjugation of women in religion.
I hear a lot about the subjugation of women in Islam, which irks me because I was raised around a tradition that is just as hard- if not HARDER- for women to bear. The Amish faith not only dresses their women in "modest" and restrictive garb, it greatly governs their ability to live their lives by cursing them to multiple pregnancies and forcing them to labor without to aids of electricity or motor vehicles.
Yet, you don't see the national guard fighting for Amish women's freedom, because people are willing to accept the nobility of their faith.
I think the greatest difference between Christianity and Islam is not in their rules but in the cultures that embrace them. Islam is largely practiced in parts of the world that have traditionally always culturally subjugated women, and a lot of the wrongs placed on Islam would be better attributed to the culture, not the faith.
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For women in Islamic nations it is harder, I suppose, but still possible. There are secular people in Islamic nations, but the women still often feel the pressure to dress conservatively- not because of the religion but the culture, just as in America there are areas where ALL women dress more conservatively because of societal standards. So when people talk about women killed for dressing revealingly- there's no way to know if those women were even Muslims. It's a problem with the law.
I really like the faith. While I wouldn't want to go all the way, I keep a garden, I conserve, I avoid using electricity as much as possible. I think there's honor in physical labor and doing for yourself (in fact, instead of buying bookshelves we recently made our own.) I especially like the Amish style of meal planning and cooking, which uses simple ingredients in several different ways, and relies on good wholesome flavors that are unembellished. It amuses me when people gush about Amish style potatoes, beef gravy and green beans. The potatoes are just potatoes hand mashed with whole cream milk, the beef gravy is just stew meat and broth thickened with flour, and the green beans are just beans braised in ham stock. Yet- I have to agree- a meal in an Amish or Mennonite home tastes better. Part of it I think is the love and devotion of the hands that made it.
And yeah, go ahead - cast the first stone, America, if we think that our cultural history has been any better than the rest of the world's when it comes to women.
Only in the western cultures, where Christianity has been largely subverted by modern presuppositions (US civil religion, Mainline and Emmergant Churches) does any of the World religions and Enlightenment ethics find themselves allied...
I'm sure it is possible to be liberal and still be for a modicum of decency, be for individual expression, but discourage distractions, gang colors, etc., etc.
As Thomas Jones sang, "Throw off your mental chains (woo hoo hoo!)"
I think you have the wrong idea about Islamic women.
Could you possibly be more vague?
Ok, so Ill write it all again.
I think you have the wrong impression about Muslim women. In MOST Muslim countries they are free to worship their religion as we are. No one makes them do anything.
Egypt considers itself a secular country. Therefore does not allow women to wear headscarves on television (news and such) because it doesn't want to give the impression to all that it is manditory. There are Christians and Jews that live there happily and no one looks twice.
There are many modern Islamic women who choose not to cover their hair. I know many of these. They are not shunned. It is their choice.
Before all of the madness, Iraq and Iran were both forward thinking countries. Women were educated and were doctors, lawyers etc.
In Kuwait, women drive, attend university, and hold jobs equal to men.
In Jordan, King Abdulla's wife does not wear a headscarf. She travels around Muslim countries teaching young girls about being a strong muslim woman. She is a Palestinian by birth, and her father is a doctor there. She, is the true meaning of a Queen.
Many of the other Islamic countries are the same. But of course, all we see is Saudi, and Afganistan. So sad.
Just remember, that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. More women are converting than men. That says something..doesnt it?.
My point is that those examples- countries that operate under strict law- are largely that way because of the culture- culture that would probably exist even without the religion.
Most Islamic countries are very progressive, and the women who choose to live under strict doctrine do so out of choice.
I saw one interview on television where there was a secular woman who had become a doctor in Iraq prior to the war- it's very sad that so many parts of Iraq are now under Sharia law and that woman may no longer be free to make her own choices. But I don't blame the religion- I blame the men who use the religion as an excuse. I'm sure they would be just as brutal without it as a justification.
The Muslim/traditionalist countries are generally pissed off at America on account of cultural issues, as "freedom" by secular definition is the smashing of any boundary, taboo, or responsibility that might bind or restrict personal autonomy. Freedom in much of the non-western world is defined as a person's ability to freely choose what boundary, taboo, or responsibility to live their lives by -- almost the exact opposite of what most Americans think of as freedom. Basically, reruns of "Dallas" and "Desperate Housewives" represent everything they abhor, while at the same time seduce the young and the immature.
1. not "white"
2. not from "first world" countries
FWIW, have you ever read Kenneth Cragg's book The Call of the Minaret? It would be well worth your time, I think.
anyone who encourages Christ-like living is excepted from what i wrote in my previous comment.
I would SO love to see us US Christians living out "Mercy triumphs over judgment."
Verrrry interesting...