The Struggle Over Women in the Context of Christianity and Islam

The Struggle Over Women in the Context of Christianity and Islam

The reason why this topic was selected was mainly because of the importance of the gender question. How some religions treat women may be termed as being in line with the religious policies. Still, in reality, it may be equally a considerable challenge when it comes to the promotion of the rights of women. There have been a few cases where the position of the woman id downplayed by the religion whereby the women do not have critical rights in that their freedoms are derived from the men. This is to means if the men do not permit anything, then the women will not have any rights whatsoever to challenge such decisions even when the decisions made are not in line with their ambitions and aspirations. There have been many cases of gender imbalances that have been promoted by religion.

Research Question:

What is the position of the woman in the Islam and Christianity perspectives?

Thesis Statement:

Religion was created with the main aim of praising and promoting the man; hence it did not factor in the position and the needs of the women. In most cases, the center stage is meant for the men, and the role of the women is mainly reduced to that of the props or supporting characters.

Research Background

The role of the women in most religions has been subject to what their male counterparts think and want. The women have not been given the power to shape their destiny as far as religion is concerned. In the case of Christianity, even though the majority of the people who usually go Churches are women, their position has been downplayed to an extent they are not seen as necessary as one would have imagined. In the long run, the women have been brainwashed into believing that the man being the head of the family should have total powers in making decisions with regards to matters to do with the church, among many other things (Rahemtulla, 2019). This has been adequately highlighted in both Islamic and Christian faiths. In the Islamic context, the woman is obligated to subscribe to the faith of the man regardless of where they used to worship or the religion they believed in before. It does not matter whether the woman was a pagan, Christian, or even Hindu. As long as someone is married to a Muslim, they automatically have to subscribe to the Islamic faith. For the Christians, one can marry a woman from the same religion but different denomination. Upon marriage, the woman would be expected to change and be the one that is now forced to subscribe to the new religion. In these two cases, it is clear that the issue of religion was not meant to promote the women but instead was introduced to promote male chauvinism over the women. The research will seek to address the current state of affairs with regard to the position of women in these two major religions.

It is evident that when it comes to the issue of preaching or teaching the congregants about God, in both religions, the position of the man is reserved in that, in most cases, the teacher of the Word of God in both religions is likely to be a man. In the case of the Catholic Church, which means the universal church of God, this is well brought out. There are no female priests. It is clear that among the Muslims, the position of a sheikh is reserved for a woman (Rahemtulla, 2019). This is indeed a key point to note that the people with the highest number of people in the churches and mosques do not have any power to lead anyone on matters religion all because of their gender. In the case of Islamic culture, it is even worse based on the fact that the position of the woman is almost at par with that of a servant. They both have no say at all. The woman is there to serve the man, and hence they are more subjects than companions.

References

Rahemtulla, S. (2019). The Politics of Paradigms: Liberation and Difference in Islam and Christianity. In Post-Christian Interreligious Liberation Theology (pp. 29-46). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.