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Women and Religion



The team that was supposed to make an inventory of the treasures stored in one of the cellars of the Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram was prevented today (20 Sep) from executing its job simply because there were women in it.  When some members of the team pointed out that the earlier inventory was also done by a team consisting of women, they were told curtly that it was a serious mistake and the purification rituals would be carried out soon.
Why are women impure?  Most religions have considered women as the source of much evil.  The very beginning of the Bible shows Eve as the cause of man’s Fall.  Neither Judaism which gave birth to the Old Testament nor Christianity which adopted the Old Testament as part of its sacred scriptures has ever given women equality with men.  For example, there are no women priests in both religions. 
The most telling verdict on women was passed by one of the Catholic theologians, Tertullian (160-220).  He said, “Do you (woman) not know that you are each an Eve?  The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too.  You are the devil’s gateway; you are the unsealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the divine law; you she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.  You so carelessly destroyed man, God’s image.  On account of your desert, even the Son of God had to die.” [emphases as in the original quoted by Karen Armstrong in A History of God]
Islam which accepted much of the Old Testament in its holy book, the Quran, treats women as much inferior to men.  The Taliban in Afghanistan goes to the extreme of making women cover themselves totally from head to toe, stripping them of their very identities. 
Hinduism was not generous to women, either, though the situation has improved much.  We may recall such inhuman practices as the sati and the ill-treatment meted out to widows.
Many of the evils bred by religions can be reduced if women are given equality with men.  Women may bring more compassion into religions.  This is my assumption.  Why not try it out anyway?

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Comments

  1. umashankarSeptember 20, 2012 at 9:22 PM

    It is sick the way the world goes crazy over women, idolizing and trashing, fantasizing and fuming on her in the same breath.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SidSeptember 21, 2012 at 9:43 PM

    From whatever little experience I have - WOMEN ARE INDEED EVIL !!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2012 at 10:07 PM

    In India the status of women has been changing with times..

    Starting from status of Mother goddess to slavery it has seen all.. I think today we are in one of the worst phases where girls are being killed even before they are born in some states.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 22, 2012 at 6:22 AM

      The attitude toward women in India today is ambivalent. On the one hand, we glorify them, while on the other we practise female infanticide and foeticide as well as perpetuate a lot of atrocities on them (increasing rapes, for instance). Women's attitudes have changed too. The increasing freedom and opportunities have gone the head in some cases at least!

      Delete
  4. UnknownSeptember 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 22, 2012 at 2:05 PM

      Anybdoy can claim anything in the name of religion, alas! Tomorrow the most wicked person can found a religion and tell us that his foulest thoughts came from God! Don't forget that the most mendacious people have misused the Bible, the Koran and the Gita for the foulest purposes time and again in the past.

      Delete
    2. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 22, 2012 at 6:24 PM

      For the sake of the readers, I'm obliged to state that "This comment has been removed by the author" means that the comment was removed by the one who posted it.

      Delete
  5. UnknownSeptember 22, 2012 at 5:45 PM

    Yoko Ono said 'Woman is the nigger of the world'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 22, 2012 at 6:16 PM

      Shovon, what do YOU have to say? I'm interested in that.

      Your comment is a veiled form of acrimony hurled at both womanhood and the Negro race. A very serious crime today if any woman or any Negro would hear it as your own opinion!

      Delete
  6. mandakolathurSeptember 23, 2012 at 8:37 PM

    "Why not try it out anyway?" Wow, finally that is a concession you have made to science! (Tongue firmly in cheek!)

    RE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 24, 2012 at 2:12 PM

      No, Raghuram, in my view, it's a suggestion to the higher powers in religious hierarchy.

      Delete

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