Within Christianity, women have more rights within the religious social structure than Judaism. Women only seem to gain a minimum of rights that allow them to be a part of the religion. “Accordingly, women’s roles in the church were severely limited; as secondary creatures, they could not appropriately hold any position of authority.”8 Looking at the quote objectively shows that Christianity is not different when compared to many other religions. Women are still represented as second-class citizens. Still being discouraged to take part in church life. A negative undertone seems to follow women in most religions. This allows for a quick look to see some similarities appearing between Christianity and Judaism. A woman was simply expected to …show more content…
With the headwear, a jihad, that women wear to the unfair equality between men and women. The unfair rights’ that extend to the religious roles within the society. “Because women’s education was limited, women generally were ignorant of the Qur’anic teachings that might have mitigated against the restrictions placed on them.”11 It is implied that women were not taught about the Qur-an. If they were taught, then women only gained a basic understanding. Presumably, the sacred text was read by men, the men controlled what the women knew. This could have been intentional in order to keep women under male authority. This presents the idea that women held no religious positions since they were left ignorant of the ways of the Qur’an. This undermines the idea of equality and forces women to remain subordinate and reliant on men. Christianity and Islam all focus on male authority, the male authority that does not allow women many religious rights. The positive in this dark quote is that women at least contain an idea of the teachings in the Qur’an. While women received limited religious right’s, they were still seen as valuable people. “Still, women were valued primarily for their ability to produce sons for their husbands’ families-the birth of a girl bringing discredit to the mother.”12 Women were expected to give birth to sons who would then become an heir. A wife had to give birth to a single son if she hoped to ever elevate her station within life. Women are still being seen for what they can produce, children. The pressure was put on women to give birth and hopefully produce a son. If a woman produced a daughter their status was lowered, and they seemed to be looked down upon. Emphasis was put on something that was naturally out of everyone’s hands. It seems that all religions focus upon sons being the heirs, pride, and joy of families. Sons that can lift a family's social standing. Daughters that tended to lower
The first religion and its views on women that will be discussed in this essay is Islam. Islam is a religions founded in Saudi Arabia almost two thousand years ago, by the prophet Muhammad. In fact, Muhammad dedicated much attention towards women in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. However, even though much was dedicated to women in the Koran, it was not dedicated to them in the sense of equality. Women in Islamic culture were apparently much lower on the totem pole than men, "The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners...If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then you may beat them (129)." Excerpt...
Women in Ottoman society had extremely restricted roles has shown in documents 2, 3, 4, and 1. Document 2 is a chapter of the Qur’an with regards to women’s rights, behavior, and treatment. The Qur’an states that certain action is to be taken in the discipline of disobedient women. The Qur’an claims that disobedient women are to be admonished by men first, then the men should refuse to share their beds with the disobedient woman, then, if they continue, the men should beat them lightly. The
The Apostle Paul, urged wives to obey their husbands and husband to respect their wives. This sums up the traditional idea of the family throughout Jewish history as pictured in the Bible. The man was the head of the house, however both man and woman worked together for the benefit of the family. In Ancient Israel, it was the parents who used to find a suitable match for their daughters’. One the suitable match is found, the bride’s family gives the daughter to the groom’s family and in return they were given a gift – a dowry. A married couple was an economic partnership, that is, if the man ended up penniless, his wife would be sold in slavery along with him. The wife’s first duty in the family was to give birth. A boy would’ve been preferred in order to continue her husband’s name. Children were taught by their mothers’ the required technical skills needed to participate in and eventually take over the productive and processing tasks of the family household. If a wife couldn’t conceive, she would give the family’s slave to her husband and any offspring would give the wife the ...
It is a Bible, a book. The Koran gives examples of the ways a woman needs to act in society. A woman is supposed to be there for her husband’s. A husband can marry multiple women and the woman may not be upset. A woman may have a dowry, but it is highly favored to give a portion of it to their husband
Women have not been treated equally in history. They were not given the same rights and opportunities as men. However, religion was a way the women could get an education and power in their spiritual lives. What was a choice women had to get educated or involved? Church, or convents being an only option for most women, it was the only possibility for them to have an education and control over their minds. I believe that there are a lot of authors that would agree that women turned to the church or religion frequently to escape home lives. In a lot of readings there are parents that give away their children to the churches early on because the parents think it is a better option for their child’s lives. Also if the parents did not have enough
In Islam, women are treated with the highest esteem. They are not seen as inferiors or as sexual objects. They are seen to be very important in life as they give birth. The Qur’an mentions how men and women cannot be separate.
...m played a role in ending practices such as human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide and adultery. Christianity in general affected the status of women by condemning infanticide, divorce, incest, polygamy, birth control, abortion and marital infidelity. While official Church teaching considers women and men to be equal and different, some modern activists of ordination of women and other feminists argue that the teachings by St. Paul, the Fathers of the Church and Scholastic theologians advanced the impression of a pleasingly ordained female subordination. Nevertheless, women have played prominent roles in Western history through the Catholic Church, particularly in education and healthcare, but also as influential theologians and mystics. The important status of the Virgin Mary gave views of maternal virtue and compassion a place at the heart of Western civilization.
The bible has been the center of many debates and has been used correctly and incorrectly. My objective in this paper is to illuminate the many flaws in the century-old yet ever present interpretation of the bible that suggests women are lesser than men. I will also commend and explain the use of the bible during the civil rights movement.
Dating back to ancient times, the role of women has never reached true equality with men. We can trace this inequality back to as early as the great Athenian society, where life as we know it today started taking form. On the other side of the inequality, throughout the ancient history of the world, the roles and positions that women have had have improved over time. We can see this tracing time from Athens, to Sparta, the Roman Republic, it's Empire and the rise of Christianity. Although some of theses societies lived parallel in time, each one shows a difference in the way they treat women. Each one did not treat women the same, but the end result compared to the beginning is positive for women.
Women were treated as second class citizens. They were willfully ignored by members of the Christianity and Despite the patriarchal society from the biblical days, God is taught as being just as much a Mother as God is a Father (102). The willful ignorance of religious scholars of the time just show that they were making a conscious effort of trying to keep women from retaining any power that they had. This relegation of religious roles in an effort to keep Men in power is a poor example of how Christianity is a religion which promotes for the love and care of all people, no matter their status. The interpretation of God from these times clash severely with my notions of what is now considered to be an all-loving entity.
Interpretations of the Bible are influential to our society because in the United States, approximately eighty-three percent of the population is Christian, according to a poll performed by ABC News. Perhaps the Bible is written with women subservient to men because the very story of creation is written as such. Genesis serves as the foundation of not only our universe, but also the religious text. In the biblical story of creation, Adam came first, then came the animals, and then last of all came Eve, putting the origin of women last. Then, it is Eve who is vulnerable enough for evil to deceive her into taking the apple and she who persuades Adam to follow her example. This sets up a basis that women are inherently weak and sinful for the rest of the faith to be built upon. (Stanton)
The Torah, in general, does not exactly alleviate the situation of women. Many Jewish feminists argue that a big chunk of the misogynistic views of men stem from the exclusivity of God as male. Judith Plaskow says, “There is the fact that we address God as he. And it is not just that we use the masculine pronoun in the absence of neuter ones – we image him in male terms. Thus he is King, Lord, Shepard, Father, etc.” She goes on to mention the incredulous arguments against the ordainment of women. Arguments that stated things like because a Rabbi or Minister is in effect a Godly figure, and since God is used in exclusively male terms, it is not fitting that a woman should take a role in the clergy.
Initially, Old Testament describes women as the corrupter of man. However, through interpreting the action of Jesus Christ, we see that he holds women in equal roles as men, to include mention of female apostles. The New Testament does not promote equality but does mention the acts of Jesus. Finally, the Qur'an places women in a subservient role allowing men to keep their under control, by any means. Interpretations of the Gods word under the disguise of organized religion are the product of the gender discrimination of the time and continue to paint women as lesser creatures in the eyes of God.
This is because throughout the years of education and study of Judaism, the women learned that everyone must be respected. Within Judaism, the women are considered to be on a separate level. They are in the world for one reason, and the men for another. Yet, within the religion, they are considered as equals. In Judaism, God is not viewed as male or female.
not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a