Faith and Feminism

Based on the discussion on “Have your say?” On BBC international on their 100 year season on discrimination.

I being a regular listener of BBC’s “Have your say” when I get the opportunity of getting the time to tune in, that is if I have no other obligation. In this instance, the panel were a number of women from all religions which transcends to faith. Since I was animated by the discussion and am a human as a whole irrespective of the faith which I am affiliated to, which I must say is on my own accord and that is atheism.

Atheism does not mean I have disrespect for other people’s belief but in fact I have a respect for them. It is only that I as the follower of the faith that I believe in justify no supreme power being there.

The female panellist was from all faiths and the three most astonishing among them was the Sikh woman, the Moslem lady and the one who followed the same faith as I.

I would like to begin from the Moslem lady. She was totally covered from head to foot only with her window to the world for all to see. The Quran mentions nowhere that a woman should be in such predicament, no did Prophet Mohammed who derived his religion from a form of Hinduism to become universal was bias against women. In fact it was his wife who was a widow and much older than him who stood behind him in his times of tribulation. No one liked change, nor did the people who he was trying to change religiously and ideologically.

He never asked his wife or the women around him to cover themselves from head to toe but they did out of necessity for protection from the elements. In the modern context – it is not only a necessity of the elements but also from the preying eyes of the opposite. The later leaders of Islam thought it wise not to draw man into temptation the woman was best cover. Sexual sin is caused more from what a male see from a woman’s body. After all humans are the wise old animals which the same instinct for alleviating sexually urge, the root cause of rape.

Coming to the Sikh woman, I must say that in no way are they a patriarchal and the first faith in the world that was purely secular and non-discriminatory on the bases of class, caste or gender. The Sikh Gurus as they are known where what we call teachers to teach their people the correct way of life. No man or woman goes away hungry from the Golden Temple where you are likely served by the rich, the poor, the boys and girls. They believe all gods as being one.

My parents’ family and I had the privilege of being born among them and they respect all humans by being below them but feared non above. Their children were my friends irrespective of male or females. They knew I was human just as they were.

Finally, I would like to come to the atheist lady, she was too vocal and not without a point allowed to be made and she was justified in it as there are many more women who have faiths and she was outnumbered as six is to one.

Yes, women are discriminated and have been historically from the past. Nothing can be done about that. It is those aspects which have culminated to the present which we can do nothing about except make humanity aware that there are two sides to the same coin, that without one the other does not exist and there is a limitation to what one of the genders can do. This simple analogy to make the point stronger would be that without the male the woman cannot conceive and without the woman there would not be the continuation of the human species.

Yes, women are more discriminated at the present times not by man alone but also by women. This has brought the gender imbalance where if this continues for another two hundred years we will become instinct ourselves as a human race.

Yes, women need to cover themselves more to save them from the gender imbalance from sexual preying eyes and given more if they want to as it is both are the essentials of human life on earth not religion. Just as we know that god is there, we also know that he is not there and rationality can prove anything.

Have your say, I am ready to answer your queries.

Steven William Pitts