Aram Hovsepian Women and Media Final Presentation Women and Religion When you combine a body of persons

adhering to a certain set of beliefs and practices with a female human being, you can combine these two ideas to make the study of women in religion. The two specific religions Id like to narrow my view upon are Islamic religion and bring up Buddhism as a slight contrasting view, though not opposing. I try to incorporate different avenues of which you can take your gaze of the religion, see its flaws and see how to further awareness for equality. The fact that segregation exists cant be changed overnight, but perhaps smalls strides can be made by understanding the religions a bit further and keeping a few questions in mind such as why cant these interpretations of texts be the prominent ones. The Islamic religion is going to one of my primary focuses. The literal meaning of the word Islam means submission to the will of God; a particular reason why there is emphasis on correct practices of the religion. Now it is understood that when speaking about Islam and gender studies the general reaction is that ones perception narrows to the area where Islam was created, the Middle East. Rather than having a broader spectrum of ideas throughout the worlds umma (Islamic community), still (for the most part) the essay will also be centralized to that particular area as well. Also, when speaking on the topic of Islam and gender studies the view is normally focused on woman. This is perhaps due to the perception of patriarchal fact that mens actions qualify as the norm of society while women contributions are shunned. Now, Islams holy book, the Koran (one of its many names), is a flawless and eternal book which is where the vast

majority of the influence comes from, even when it comes to law. Another main influence is the Prophet Muhammad, while other lesser influences include legal reasoning (called ijtihad) and consensus of the community (ijma). The Koran has many specific references to women on major topics in Muslim lifestyle. One on marriage: you may marry other women who seem good to you: two or three or four of them. But if you fear that you cannot maintain equality among them, marry only one (4:3)., another on bequeathals: a male shall inherit twice as much as a female (4:11). and yet another implementing male authority over women: men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah had guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them (4:34). Clearly there is a male dominance exerted throughout the religion, yet it supposed to be noted that although socially men are dominant, that in Allahs eyes they are equals as believers. You can point out the clear misogynist ideas that you see in the Koran, yet early civilizations of Jewish and Christian cultures both had similar prospective (taking for example Genesis 3:16 and 1 Timothy 2:11). However it can also be said that gender equality for Jewish and Christian faiths have taken gargantuan strides since such times, while the social construct of Islamic societies have not caught up in that aspect of contemporary Western ideals. Now to the prophet Mohammad; him and his fellowship were to be considered as figures to be emulated, since the practices of the prophet and those close to him were to be revealing of Gods will. This is particularly odd when you consider Mohammads wives, the first one being Khadija. Khadija

was wealth widow who actually employed Mohammad. She was powerful not only economically as a merchant but socially as well and a strong figure for woman. After Khadijas death, he eventually married Aisha. She was another powerful figure for women as she we intertwined with political matters and even presented lessons about the hadith (prophets practices). These two women are formidable symbols that feminists today try to bridge a connection to as an outlet for women activism in Muslim culture. The more prominent role model perhaps is Fatima, Muhammads daughter (some say his only biological daughter). She was a symbol of motherhood, purity and chastity. Its interesting to consider that after the Prophet Mohammads time had passed, there was a slow transition of women who would be characterized as more of a Khadija or Aisha persona, into a Fatima persona. Its a simple assumption to make that the patriarchal views had a significant helping hand in swaying the balance of quelling the Islamic ladies into a secondary role. This demeaning of women looks more and more unjust now, with evidence that allows women to be more prominent figures in their culture. Miriam Cooke wrote about a term she made describing the sociological gaze we have upon Islamic women, muslimwoman. She states that this term is the simple combination of two words that together create the single identity of a veil wearing (for some, a figurative veil) who have been hindered the allowance of diversity and are fit into a particular visualization of a Muslim woman by non-Muslim people, and even Islamic men. There is an idea that men are not the face of the umma anymore, but rather, the Muslimwoman is. This creates the opportunity for men to protect women from outsiders, and keep them pure. Methods for doing this are regulating appearance and behavior, and justifications are not only patriarchal beliefs, but direct interpretation of yet another bible passage: enjoin believing women to turn their eyes away from temptation and to preserve their chastity; to cover their adornments; to draw their veils over their

bosoms and not to reveal their finery except to their husbands, fathers (24:31). Certain areas in the world have mandatory implementation of veils, and others have it so you cant wear them even if you want to. For example: In Egypt wearing a niqab to university is a heated topic yet some other places in the world even have it so that dress limitations may apply to non-Muslim women as well. There is a lot of oppression in the ranks of the Muslim through the legislation. Middle Eastern and North African women have had publications speaking about this exact topic (example: Leila Aboulela). These activist writers, although intent on ridding their audience of misogyny like in their literature, may have had a flaw in their works. Some of them exploit the image of a Muslimwoman, and have helped its exposure be transferred from household to household. These are not the only women interacting with activism through this topic. There are more artists, writers, playwrights, but more specifically there are sharia (moral code and Islamic religious law) activists. These ladies are attempting to defy classical interpretations of the rhetoric given, and are also intent on the implication of the sharia being that since it is a religious law being used to govern the people, then the people should have the freedom to discuss the impact of the laws and policies that are made in the name of the religion. This idea is not a farfetched one at the least and is clearly a form of violation and means of oppression. There is a large rift in the Islamic culture between the Sunni and the Shiite. Although they are opposition to each other and have differences in their interpretations, they are both still heavily involved in the womens struggle. Starting with Shiite woman, they have been trying to recreate the model of Muslim women through figures of the past (Another one of these being Zaynab, Muhammads granddaughter, who was a defiant warrior) since the role of the hadith are an integral part in the Shiite beliefs. With the scope of Palestine as an example, Sunnis are

treading different. With Sunnis becoming more of an integral part of Palestinian development, Hamass Womens Action Department is trying to create a separate image from that of the Muslimwoman, where political movement for women is included. These are activists trying to bend the patriarchal fingers that have such a firm grasp upon matters. Another movement in Cairo where woman have been flooding mosques to become religious figures, or even to try to experience what may constitute as being a true Islam. Rather, modern times show that every mosque has separation of genders, even the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which technically has no segregation, has different sections for women and children. Now we make our way into Buddhism. To understand Buddhism you have to know about a few traditional ideas of gender that they have. The first is states that gender is overall irrelevant and something about which weak worldlings are confused. This is generally the translation you get through many mediums but even in other versions of this theme the message is quite clear that gender is supposed to be seen as irrelevant, a nice change in pace from the Islamic androcentric ideals. The other theme might seem as a contrast to the first, saying that someone is far more fortunate to be a male rather than a female. This idea is interpreted through not only the societal limitations on women studying Buddhism itself, but the fact that women were domesticated and had the responsibility of bearing children. They explained that whether you were born into a male or female body is directly correlated with whether or not you have had good karma or bad karma in your past life (karma being actions youve done committed). However, although misogynist in certain aspects, the Buddhist culture looks at women not as weak and frail and something to be abused, but rather unfortunate to go through the tribulations that they must go through. Not only do they have a decent outlook upon women, but, they state that women deserving enough can be reborn as men in their future lives. Understandably there

can be different outlooks upon this, 1. That gender is indeed neutral in their point of view when you erase the fact that they accept women having the more difficult lives or 2. A misogynistic outlook upon genders since they imply women if deserving can, in a future life, become a man, and therefore signifies an implication that men and more important than women. Whatever way you look at it, at least there is an accepted way for women to exercise their practices (which may help them become a male human one day). And although some Buddhist ideas and texts include celibacy and some include ideas of stern misogyny, there are many strands of Buddhism that are strictly against the prejudice of anti-women ideas. Another aspect to focus on is the differentiation of nuns compared to monks in the Buddhist culture. Classical Buddhism holds dearly to the idea of monasticism, yet few monasteries ordain nuns. Some only allow a certain rank of a novice level and other areas dont even have that. Even if a nun is accepted by being ordained, they are still dressed in different robes and seen as inferior to any monk regardless of seniority or regardless even of achievements. On the bright side nuns in general have, although not having access to the full wealth of information that monks have the access to, the amount of education they receive has seen improvement. This is clearly unjust and is difficult to comprehend while understanding one general idea that woman and men are seen as indifferent, even though its technically seen as unfortunate to be a woman. In contrast to this traditional aspect of Buddhist lifestyle, the Westernized and even Japanese version of the lifestyle is different and more accepting for women. This different style shows the emphasis on women and men of Buddhism not striving to be monks or nuns, and rather that they mix their meditation and studies with their everyday mundane lives. This gives the opportunity for women to learn more and to even become teachers of the subject matter. Technically speaking, most often times women may even outnumber men

when learning about Buddhism. The problem though stems through the fact that high level Buddhism teachers are scarcely women. However Buddhism, and other religions at that, is an evolving religion which has had many critics through literature that bring up very valid points about inclusions of women (such as the search for women influences in past which were perhaps lost in Buddhism memory). In a qualitative article by Debra Huron, Buddhism is described the historically patriarchal religion and pointed out the negativity in that although Buddha viewed all of his members as equal (even though some countries had different castes), he was reluctant to include women on the spiritual path. Despite this inequality, many women find themselves experiencing a great connecting with the religion. One woman describes her connection with meditation as "an experience that means 'there's intrinsically nothing wrong with you as a human being... a realization that can only be helpful to women.'" Although Buddhism shares a patriarchal history like many other religions, it is one of the few religions that women dont express concerns about oppression. The differences between an ideal world for woman in Islamic and Buddhist religions are still incredibly evident, and are shown up. Buddhism and Islamic religions do show signs of alleviating an androcentric ideas, it is taking very long to show minor progress. The brighter notion is that the works of these feminists are not in vein and are at least unhinging the doors slightly. The efforts implemented by the women today to try to change deep seeded patriarchy are very difficult, but if you want progress, if you want your voice to be heard and to be a definitive force in the movement you hope it should be in.