Religion and Women

New York Times, Op-Ed Columnist = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = January 10, 2010

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Religions derive their power and popularity in part from the ethical compass they off= er. So why do so many faiths help perpetuate something that most of us regard as profoundly unethical: the oppression of women?

It is not that warlords in Congo cite Scripture to justify their mass rapes (although the last warlord I met there called himself a pastor and wore a button reading “rebels for Christ”). It’s not that brides are burned in India a= s part of a Hindu ritual. And there’s no verse in the Koran that instructs Afghan thugs to throw acid in the faces of girls who dare to go to school.<= o:p>

Yet these kinds of abuses — along with more banal injustices, like slappi= ng a girlfriend or paying women less for their work — arise out of a social context in which women are, often, second-class citizens. That’s a context that religions have helped shape, and not pushed hard to change.

“Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified,” former President Jimmy Carter noted in a speech last month to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in= Australia.

“The belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God,” Mr. Carter continued, “gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale= for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo.”

Mr. Carter, who sees religion as one of the “basic causes of the violatio= n of women’s rights,” is a member of The Elders, a small council of retired leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. The Eld= ers are focusing on the role of religion in oppressing women, and they have iss= ued a joint statement calling on religious leaders to “change all discriminatory practices within their own religions and traditions.”<= o:p>

The Elders are neither irreligious nor rabble-rousers. They include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and they begin their meetings with a moment for silent prayer= .

“The Elders are not attacking religion as such,” noted Mary Robinson, the former president of = Ireland and United Nations high commissioner for human rights. But she added, ̶= 0;We all recognized that if there’s one overarching issue for women itR= 17;s the way that religion can be manipulated to subjugate women.”

There is of course plenty of fodder, in both the Koran and the Bible, for those w= ho seek a theology of discrimination.

The New Testament quotes St. Paul (I Timothy 2) as saying that women “must be silent.” Deuteronomy declares that if a woman does not bleed on her wedding night, “the me= n of her town shall stone her to death.” An Orthodox Jewish prayer thanks = God, “who hast not made me a woman.” The Koran stipulates that a wom= an shall inherit less than a man, and that a woman’s testimony counts for half a man’s.

In fairness, many scholars believe that Paul did not in fact write the passages calling on women to be silent. And Islam started out as socially progressive for women — banning female infanticide and limiting polygamy — = but did not continue to advance.

But religious leaders sanctified existing social structures, instead of pushing= for justice. In Africa, it would help enormo= usly if religious figures spoke up for widows disenfranchised by unjust inherita= nce traditions — or for rape victims, or for schoolgirls facing sexual demands from their teachers. Instead, in Uganda, the influence of conservative Christians is found in a grotesque push to execute gays.<= /o:p>

Yet paradoxically, the churches in Africa th= at have done the most to empower women have been conservative ones led by evangelicals and especially Pentecostals. In particular, Pentecostals encou= rage women to take leadership roles, and for many women this is the first time t= hey have been trusted with authority and found their opinions respected. In rur= al Africa, Pentecostal churches are becoming a signifi= cant force to emancipate women.

That’s a glimmer of hope that reminds us that while religion is part of the proble= m, it can also be part of the solution. The Dalai Lama has taken that step and calls himself a feminist.

Another excellent precedent is slavery. Each of the Abrahamic<= /span> faiths accepted slavery. Muhammad owned slaves, and <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">St. Paul seems to have condoned slavery= . Yet the pioneers of the abolitionist movement were Quakers and evangelicals like William Wilberforce. People of faith ultimately worked ferociously to overt= hrow an oppressive institution that churches had previously condoned.

Today, when religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies and ritual= s, the inevitable implication is that females are inferior. The Elders are rig= ht that religious groups should stand up for a simple ethical principle: any person’s human rights should be sacred, and not depend on something as earthly as their genitals.

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