Women and Religion

- Communist ideals involving gender roles were taught through propaganda.

Many parents who received Soviet educations

encouraged their daughters to study and pursue professional opportunities unlike before.

96% of Kazakh women were literate, made up 52% of universities and 90% were employed (30-50 years old).

Much of patriarchy and religion were silenced.

Soviet Union

The Hijab

The hijab an image of oppression?

- Although some women are forced, many women choose to wear hijab.

- They believe it preserves their values and focuses on character rather than looks.

- The "Western Gaze" often paints an unfavorable image of the hijab.

The Soviet Union enforced mandatory atheism and many of the mosques were destroyed. Many people maintained private practices or connected with Islam through an ethnic or cultural background (Kultura).

However, many former satellites gained nationalism after their liberation and traditional stereotypes came back.

Paranja

Bride Kidnapping

- "...not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof" [Sura 24:31 (An-Nur)]

- "O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused" [Sura 33:59 (Al-Ahzab)]

-Can be compulsory to wear hijab by law or imposed by social pressure.

- Was reintroduced after the Soviet Union fell through nationalism.

- Consists of a man and his male friends who plot the kidnapping of a desired bride.

- The bride goes through humiliation, shame and anger before "consenting" to the family that force her into marriage whether she loves the man or not.

- Many brides are very young. Their educations and careers are halted. Physically abused is not uncommon.

Intersections of nation, culture, religion and economic background change the perception of patriarchy through religion.

In Morocco, hijab is more popular in lower income families and frown upon by higher income families.

In 2015, Saudi Arabian women gained the right to vote. However, they must have a male escort and cannot drive by law.

They must also have a valid I.D. card and proof of residency, "...which can be difficult to obtain since their names are usually not listed on deeds or utility bills..." (Epatko).

"Throughout Central Asia, gender relations are being redefined as Islamic values are reinstated as the ‘guiding ethic for society’, national histories and national traditions are rewritten and revived, and patriarchal authority (symbolized by the male head of state) is reasserted" (Akiner 1997: 284; Kandiyoti 2007).

Kazakh and Kyrgyz

Uzbek and Tajik

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan began, and still have, "gender disparity" between girls and boys in schools concluded the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (Saidazimova).

Natalie

Evangelical Church & Biblical Patriarchy

- Muslim Tatar heritage from Bashkortostan, Russia

- Grew up secular

Biblical patriarchy, also known as Christian patriarchy, is a set of beliefs in Evangelical Christianity concerning gender relations and their manifestations in establishments like marriage, the family, and the home. It sees the father as the head of the home, the provider, and controller of the home.

Beliefs of Biblical Patriarchy:

• God is masculine (No factual representation of God's sex/gender)
• God purposefully created distinct gender roles
• Male leadership at home continues onto male leadership in the church.
• Patriarchal teaching (women should not continue onto a higher education)
• Adult, unmarried women are subject to the fathers authority

Biblical Patriarchy teaches beliefs that demean women. Women in the family are objectified into being the "property" of the husband or father. Biblical Patriarchy is very similar to some factors of the Islam religion.The intersectionalities of religion, age, family, and gender are intertwined when identifying the oppression of Biblical Patriarchy.

Turkic people; cultures and ethnic groups reflect on Central Asia’s history.

The Silk Road (connection between Europe, the Middle East, India and China)

Central Asia

Dominant religion in Central Asia - Islam

Historically the region has been populated by Sunni Muslims and, in many areas, have been liberal in their Islamic teachings

How American Government Shaped Contemporary Patriarchy

Quiverfull Movement

Conservative Christians vs Modernists

A movement among some conservative fundamentalist Christian couples. The movement promotes procreation and is against infertility, sterilization, contraceptives, and natural family planning.

Countries and Territories:

Bashkortostan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tatarstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Roman Catholic Church

Modernists embrace a more modern, liberal, and critical approach to their faith.

What This Section will Cover:

• Why it matters that over 95% of U.S presidents were Christian.
• How slavery relates to Patriarchy.
• Why Ecofeminism connects to it all

• Only priests can say mass and only men can be priests.
• The question of women becoming priests has been considered.
• Thirteenth century theologian, Aquinas stated how women are incapable, incomplete, and are "defective men" making them unfit for priesthood
• The church justified this by stating that women were inferior to men on a primitive account of human nature and biology.

Bordered by Russia in the North,

Caspian Sea in the West, Iran and

Afghanistan in the south and China

in the East.

Conservative Christians believe that there are no errors in the Bible and has sole authority.

This contradicts with modern day changes and oppresses factors like homosexuality, sexuality, even feminism!

Christian Feminism

• Many couples believe that God gives them the amount of children the can handle.
• Some Quiverfull adherents believe they are building an army for God and against Satan.
• The movement is anti-feminist and enforces patriarchy. (They preach Biblical Patriarchy)
• The movement has been linked to sexual assault before.

Christian feminism is a branch of feminist theology which seeks to understand the equality of men and women, spiritually, morally, socially, and in leadership from a Christian perspective.

• Sexist ingenuity: Adam was the head of the human race and if Eve hadn't persuaded & manipulated him into eating the apple, he would not have fallen.
• Jesus chose 12 men (Apostles) to represent him and God (cultural norms of his era), therefore establishing a permanent norm.
• This norm of having a ministry by men alone has been confirmed by the constant and universal Teaching of the Church throughout Tradition.
• This results in the fact that women can only obtain the highest position of a nun.

Mary Magdalene & Virgin Mary

The Duggars

Patriarchy is a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It may also include title being traced through the male line.

Josh Duggar, the eldest son, "fondled 5 girls, including 4 of his sisters by touching their breasts and genital areas on multiple occasions while they were asleep and a few cases when they were awake."

• Mary is identified as pure, madonna, and born sinless.
• The Virgin Birth
• Jesus was concieved in the womb of her mother through the Holy Spirit.

19 Kids and Counting

• Josh sexually assaulted young girls around 2002-2003 when he was 14 and 15 years old, but this issue was just recently discovered.
• The Duggar parents turned to the elders of their church for help.
• The statue of limitations of these cases has expired.

• Witnessed Jesus' resurrection
• After the 5th century theologians downplayed her role as an influential "follower of Jesus" to a "sinful woman"
• Only the Western Church has labeled her as "prostitute". The Eastern Church has always honored her as "apostle to the apostles"

Tradition vs Present Day Reality

Patriarchy

The feminist theories of explaining how sexist thinking works and creating a mass-based educational movement (consciousness raising) to teach everyone about patriarchy in religion is needed in order to drift away from traditions created hundreds of years ago when cultural norms saw women as inferior and incomplete.

It all started from Slavery

• Independent Baptist Family (fundamentalist/conservative family)
• only watch programs they consider to be wholesome family television

Patriarchy refers to a system of government ruled by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems.

Sexuality & Individuality

• Any form of sexual activity before marriage is considered as a mortal sin (celibacy).
• Birth control: The use of contraceptives interfere with the act of conception, so contraceptives are not allowed.
• Abortion is seen as a form of murder, therefore a sin.

To be exact, 41 out of 43 US presidents were Christian. As we have seen before (in Galy’s presentation), Christianity is heavily revolved around patriarchal ideals. This explains for the upcoming statistics of the androcentric (male-centered) society. The whole system was built off of patriarchy.

…In the beginning, the African-Americans had no social power because of their enslavement, which meant that there was no way to organize workers in the South.

Slavery was abolished by Congress on

January 31, 1865

The constitution was signed on

September 17, 1787

The constitution was written

78 years before slavery was abolished.

• This negatively affirms a woman's sexuality.
• It widens the split of mens image towards women (whore vs virgin)
• The Catholic Church positions women as subordinate to men; woman should be accepting to her husbands desires, not her own .

Galy

• Armenian
• Apostolic Christian

The main point is that 65% our country's decisions are being made by people who only represent 31% of the population:

• Over double the power is given to specific people because of race, gender, and secretly, religion.

• Internet service is filtered
• They adhere to certain standards of modesty in clothing in accordance to religious beliefs
• Have Quiverfull beliefs

Ecofeminism

Bringing it all together

How does Ecofeminism, Slavery, Women, the Environment, Third World, and Working class all connect with the patriarchy?

Aristocratic Ambition:

Prosperity and Power

Slaves - Plantations

Working Class - Labor

Women - Sex Trafficking

Ecology - Fossil Fuels

Many political writers believe that since we have continuously adapted a dominion mindset onto others, such as slaves, colored people, and women, we are also applying that same oppressive dominion to nature.

Ecofeminists believe that we need to adapt the mindset of indigenous cultures and religions:

treating nature sacredly.

What is The Point of all this?

All of them fixate on dominion

Now that we know not just which groups

were oppressed, but the reason for their

oppression, we can shift the feminist

movement more towards a mentality which

prevents this exponential gain of power.

This fixation on gaining absurd amounts of wealth

and political power has driven our society

to become systematically desensitized.

We need to bring our ethics and compassion for each other back.

Or as bell hooks titles,

"An Ethics of Mutual Freedom"

(bell hooks 85)

Significant Prosperity = Exploitation without

ethical considerations

Maximizing Political Power = Marginalize as many

citizens as possible

The fixation on dominion and patriarchy has been made primarily to maintain political power.

(Hint: That is why white males have been in

power for so long Yes, this is unethical)

Women remain under-represented in local government.

• 32% of councilors in England are women.
• 12.3% of council leaders in England are women
• 13.3% are elected mayors.

• The Middle Eastern Muslim family has long been described as a patriarchal unit, and it has been noted that muslim family laws have served to reinforce patriarchal gender relations and women’s subordinate position within the family

Origins in Christianity

Empirical Evidence #3

Taken from the Qur'an

• 3) A man may be polygamous with up to four wives.

Empirical Evidence #1

Taken from the Qur'an

• The Quran in Sura 4:3 says:And if you be apprehensive that you will not be able to do justice to the orphans, you may marry two or three or four women whom you choose. But if you apprehend that you might not be able to do justice to them, then marry only one wife, or marry those who have fallen in your possession. (Maududi, vol. 1, p. 305)

• 1) A male gets a double share of the inheritance over that of a female.

• The Quran in Sura 4:11 says: The share of the male shall be twice that of a female . . . . (Maududi, vol. 1, p. 311).

• The Qur'an is the principal source of Islamic law, the Sharia. It contains the rules by which the Muslim world is governed (or should govern itself) and forms the basis for relations between man and God, between individuals, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, as well as between man and things which are part of creation. The Sharia contains the rules by which a Muslim society is organized and governed, and it provides the means to resolve conflicts among individuals and between the individual and the state.

• The generally agreed upon way of doing things about fixed shares of inheritance (fara'id) of children from the mother or father when one or the other dies is that if they leave male and female children, the male takes the portion of two females.

• The clause 'marry those who have fallen in your possession' means slave—girls who were captured after a war. Men may 'marry' them because slaves do not incur very much expense, not as much as free women do. This means that the limit on four wives is artificial. Men could have sex with as many slave—girls as they wanted.

Women have not achieved parity with men because The Founding Fathers followed established discriminatory practices revolved around conservative Christian ideology.

Empirical Evidence #2

Taken from the Qur'an

• 2) A woman's testimony counts half of a man's testimony.

Bible Origin

Kymia

• The Quran in Sura 2:282 says: And let two men from among you bear witness to all such documents [contracts of loans without interest]. But if two men be not available, there should be one man and two women to bear witness so that if one of the women forgets (anything), the other may remind her. (Maududi, vol. 1, p. 205).

The Christian bible mandates (1 Co 11:3, Eph 5:22) "that women subject themselves to a man’s will in all things" and male-dominated societies have promulgated (promoted) that notion up until modern times; in some societies, it is still the law of the land.

Muslim Countries

• Sunni Muslims regard themselves as the orthodox and traditionalist branch of Islam.
• The word Sunni comes from "Ahl al-Sunna", the people of the tradition. The tradition in this case refers to practices based on precedent or reports of the actions of the Prophet Muhammad and those close to him.
• Sunnis venerate all the prophets mentioned in the Koran, but particularly Muhammad as the final prophet. All subsequent Muslim leaders are seen as temporal figures.

• Iran has the largest Shia majority, with more than 66 million making up nearly 90% of the population.
• Shia are also in the majority in Iraq and Bahrain. There are sizable Shia communities in Kuwait, Yemen, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Baptism

• Iranian
• Extended family is muslim
• Grew up in a non-religious household

• The majority of Muslims are Sunnis - estimates suggest the figure is somewhere between 85% and 90%.

• In early Islamic history the Shia were a political faction - literally "Shiat Ali" or the party of Ali.
• The Shia claimed the right of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, and his descendants to lead the Islamic community.
• There is a distinctive messianic element to the faith and Shia have a hierarchy of clerics who practice independent and ongoing interpretation of Islamic texts.

• The Middle Eastern countries with the greatest proportion of Sunnis are Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, with Sunnis making up 90% or more of the population.

• Islamic law (Sharia) requires that adulterers be put to death, since it was the example set by Muhammad. In practice, the women are executed far more often, since they are presumed to bear the burden of sexual responsibility (in Islam's male-dominated society) and are, perhaps, more likely to confess their discretion. Rape victims are sometimes convicted if they speak out. Reporting a rape means a confession of adultery under Sharia law if four male witnesses cannot be found to confirm the victim's claim.

• Numerous examples of stoning adulterers under Islamic law persist, from the Islamist frontier of Somalia to the modern state of Iran. In 2010, the Taliban planted a couple having unauthorized sex in the ground and brutally pelted them with stones (the man had to be finished off with three gunshots) only a few days after they flogged a pregnant woman 200 times and then shot her in the head. In "condemning" the killings, the "moderate" president of Afghanistan would only say that they were wrong because they were not preceded by a trial.

Empirical Evidence #4

Taken from the Qur'an

• 4) Stoning is justified if woman is accused of adultery

Empirical Evidence #5

Taken from the Qur'an

• Muslim (17:4206) - A woman who became pregnant confesses to Muhammad that she is guilty of adultery. Muhammad allows her to have the child, then has her stoned. The description is graphic: "Khalid b Walid came forward with a stone which he flung at her head and there spurted blood on the face of Khalid and so he abused her."

• 5) Women are regarded is incompetent in comparison to men

• Qur'an (2:282) - (Court testimony) "And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not found then a man and two women." Muslim apologists offer creative explanations to explain why Allah felt that a man's testimony in court should be valued twice as highly as a woman's, but studies consistently show that women are actually less likely to tell lies than men, meaning that they would make more reliable witnesses.

• Ibn Ishaq (970) - "The adulterer must be stoned." These words were a part of Muhammad's farewell address to his people on the occasion of his final pilgrimage to Mecca.
• Islamic Law - "The stone shall not be so big so as to kill the person by one or two strikes, neither shall it be so small that it cannot be called a stone" The victim is intended to suffer.

• Qur'an (2:228) - "and the men are a degree above them [women]"

• Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?' They replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is the deficiency in her intelligence.'"

Zackery Brazina

• Japanese American

• Grew up in a Jewish Home,
• Currently Secular

Christianity & Islam

Christianity and Islam are the worlds largest religions.

As of 2010...

Christianity: 2.2 billion adherents

Islam: 1.6 billion adherents

Women and Religion

Galy Kouyoumjian

Zackery Brazina

Natalie Dease

Kymia Mahjouri