With centuries the women has been rated as less important than men in almost all parts of the world. In fact, in some ways women’s responsibilities are to look after household and children. Women are discouraged from pursuing higher education or religious pursuits because women who engage in such pursuits might neglect their primary duties as wives and mothers.
Recently, six main religions of the world have been discussed at the World Religion panel. Six panelists have discussed about different religions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Paganism and Hinduism. The motive of this conference was to analyze the women’s role in different religious practice. Each panelist gave her view of women’s place in the religion.
While telling about women’s role in Buddhism, Osho tells that ancient Buddhism was dominated by men but many big-time nuns and teachers in Buddhist history were women.
Deborah Core, an English professor and a Roman Catholic tells that women play very prominent role in Christian society. In Hindu religion, all the religious practices used to perform by men. Women role is to support the men. Women should proper care of household and their husbands. But a Hindu mother holds very high place in the religious hierarchy.
Rebecca Adams, former Eastern student and Paganism representative said that in Paganism, some sects of Wicca view women are more important than men. In fact, some Wicca groups are mostly composed of women.
In Jewish society the condition of women is not good. In the religious ceremony, the Jewish women have to sit behind a curtain during services because men could not look at women while they prayed. When women menstruated, they were encouraged to wear a veil and men could not touch them. And if you were raped or spoiled before marriage you will be treated as damaged goods by your family members.
The power of women varies from culture to culture and religion to religion. It is certainly true that in some of these culture women wielded more dignity, respect, and power. So many initiatives have been taken and still more efforts are needed to empower the women.
Comments
yes,i agree with this.wemens in all parts of the world as treated as same you mention.they supposed to do only house keeping.Before marrige girls are under her father supervision and after marrige these girls become so called BAHU,who supposed to do all ritual things and follow all instrictions made by her in-lows or husband.womens sacrifies her life over family and her works is still uncountable.
It is true that women are really treated badly in all religions and societies but they have a way to hide that by making women goddesses and other higher entities. The Roman vestal virgins, the Virgin Mary or for that matter the Mother figure. That way when you folks complain, we can immediately say how much we respect you. But for the fact that what we only respect we are often deeply fearful and weary about.