Religious gender discrimination

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Religious gender discrimination

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1LolaWalser
Edited: Aug 22, 2016, 1:32 pm

I've been reading, coincidentally more or less, several books about France and Europe in general that find a lot of resonance in my (concurrent) reading of Beauvoir and some current events such as the bans of "burqinis" in France (also in some places in Germany and Austria...) and other incidents relating to (im)perfect absorption of newest Muslim refugees and immigrants in Europe. Since religion is the major factor in shaping the events and attitudes and opinions involved, I think they deserve--need, even--to be discussed separately from other incidents of gender discrimination less directly related to religion.

The most widespread form of discrimination against women and resulting oppression is based in and promoted by various religions--traditionally, and in many cases, to this day. The three major global religions, all rooted in the Bible and deriving from the same Middle Eastern cultural framework, invariably construct women as a class inferior and subservient to men. To date, all attempts to mitigate, reform and generally "modernise" this paradigm have resulted in offshoots that offer interpretations and practices more acceptable to our contemporaries, but none have, of course, done completely away with traditional, fundamentalist, literal etc. interpretations.

Paul in 1 Corinthians, from Chapter 11, KJV:

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.

9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.


Bible (King James)/1 Corinthians: Chapter 11

The whole chapter reads confusingly--to me anyway--and various interpretations and "real meanings" of it all are not what interests me. Rather, the point is what most people believe things like these to mean and that, rightly or wrongly, they have been and are used to oppress women.

The point, to me, is the atmosphere these ideas create, as much as ideas themselves. Begin with stating that men are made in the image of god--women, not so much--that men are "the heads" of women--not the opposite--that men communicate with god freely bare-headed--women must cover, lest they exist in shame.

Begin with that and how can you NOT end up with oppression?

2MarthaJeanne
Aug 22, 2016, 2:44 pm

What is being discussed in Germany and Austria right now is not 'burqinis', but requiring people, perhaps on the street, but certainly in most government buildings including schools and kindergardens, to have their faces free.

3LolaWalser
Aug 22, 2016, 2:50 pm

>2 MarthaJeanne:

I read in Die Zeit about burqini bans in several German cities and at least one Austrian--as in France it seems to be up to municipalities to make local decisions, so far. But it varies--same article mentions a town that offered burqini rentals at the pools (don't remember which one it was...)

I'll try to find the link.

4LolaWalser
Aug 22, 2016, 3:43 pm

Sorry, I just can't seem to dig out the article where German and Austrian examples were cited after French--there are other notices about Melk, that seems to be one definite ban in Austria, and in Germany there are bunches, but it's hard to tell whether limited to specific venues or city-wide.

And I just saw fresh articles about banning face-covering getups in public, yes.

6LolaWalser
Aug 23, 2016, 11:36 am

I posted this in Pro & Con but it's too important for that craphole; please consider these women if you're ever tempted to defend veiling:

As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the hijab in the name of interfaith solidarity

In 1919, Egyptian women marched on the streets demanding the right to vote; they took off their veils, imported as a cultural tradition from the Ottoman Empire, not a religious edict. The veil then became a relic of the past.

Later, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser said in a speech in the early 1960s that, when he sought reconciliation with members of the Muslim Brotherhood group for attempting to assassinate him in 1954, the Supreme Leader of the Brotherhood gave him a list of demands, including, “imposing hijab on Egyptian women.” The audience members didn’t understand what the word hijab meant. When Nasser explained that the Brotherhood wanted Egyptian women to wear a headscarf, the audience members burst out laughing.


This reminds me of what V. S. Naipaul* noted in Among believers, when he was travelling in Iran immediately after the revolution--the very first measures brought by Khomeini's Islamic government concerned women, regulating their new confinement and imposing restrictions in terms of everything from clothes to wear (cover up hair to toe) to when, where and how they were allowed to be in public--for example, men and women were forced to keep to separate pathways, use separate gates, entrances etc. Of course, the sheer impracticality of many of these measures translated into women getting severely curtailed in freedom of movement (almost as if that was the idea!) and basically turning any task outside the home into a giant PITA.

*(Naipaul, be it noted, not exactly famous for feminism and niceness--and neither does he make any sign that what is happening is particularly deplorable. But his detachment proves all the more how rabidly focussed Islamism is on misogynistic practices, when someone like him thought them noteworthy.)

7Jesse_wiedinmyer
Aug 23, 2016, 12:16 pm

Eve's first sin was listening to the devil.
Adam's first sin was listening to a woman.

How much worse can it get?

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