Women in Islam: Are Gender Equality and Religious Freedom Mutually Exclusive?
Women in Islam: Are gender equality and religious freedom mutually exclusive?
In 2011, scholar and activist Frances Kissling published a blog in the Washington Post with the powerful heading, “Religion lays foundation for gender discrimination.” An inflammatory claim, but is this overstated or essentially truthful? This is a multilayered issue to be dissected, rather than immediately affirmed or denied.
The right to freely practice one’s religion, as protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has long been seen as competing with the promise of absolute gender equality. In most world religions, women and men are not allowed equal rank. In her blog, Kissling pointed out primary evidence of gender discrimination in the lack of female spiritual or congregational leadership across the spectrum of religious traditions. Considering, for instance, Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Roman Catholicism, by precedent a woman has yet to reach the upper tiers of the holy job ladder. (Kissling) But this issue runs deeper than structural hierarchies and positions of power. Women are generally pushed to the side in many religious practices, kept separate in their roles and made to feel unequal to men.
According to the 1979 Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), “discrimination against women” is specifically defined as:
Any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on the basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms on the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. (Parker)
Based on this definition, gender discrimination has been long embedded in religious institutions. From the separate door a Muslim woman must use to enter her mosque, to the inability of a Catholic woman to be ordained as a
In 2011, scholar and activist Frances Kissling published a blog in the Washington Post with the powerful heading, “Religion lays foundation for gender discrimination.” An inflammatory claim, but is this overstated or essentially truthful? This is a multilayered issue to be dissected, rather than immediately affirmed or denied.
The right to freely practice one’s religion, as protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has long been seen as competing with the promise of absolute gender equality. In most world religions, women and men are not allowed equal rank. In her blog, Kissling pointed out primary evidence of gender discrimination in the lack of female spiritual or congregational leadership across the spectrum of religious traditions. Considering, for instance, Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Roman Catholicism, by precedent a woman has yet to reach the upper tiers of the holy job ladder. (Kissling) But this issue runs deeper than structural hierarchies and positions of power. Women are generally pushed to the side in many religious practices, kept separate in their roles and made to feel unequal to men.
According to the 1979 Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), “discrimination against women” is specifically defined as:
Any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on the basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms on the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. (Parker)
Based on this definition, gender discrimination has been long embedded in religious institutions. From the separate door a Muslim woman must use to enter her mosque, to the inability of a Catholic woman to be ordained as a
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