Surviving the worst

This post may have some hard facts about religious beliefs and rituals of various religions but for me it is important to reveal all those facts that are present for thousands of years and because this post concerns women and how they've been positioned in different religions it may not be acceptable to beings who call themselves the caretakers of the religion and society and it is because of them gender discrimination and exploitation of weaker sex exists even in the modern society.

In modern world where gender bias and sex discrimination is considered an evil and in many countries eliminating gender bias is the basis of many laws including those that govern workplaces, family courts and even voting booths etc. Despite the fact that there have been continuous efforts to tackle gender bias our society is still struggling to eradicate this evil.

The problem has not come into existence overnight but it has been there for thousands of years since christianity came on earth as a religion and it's not only christianity but Islam and Hinduism as well that sees women as an oppressed creature. Unlike christianity which is considered to be one of the oldest religion 'Pagans' the religion preached by Babylonians which is known to be the first religion on the earth did not consider woman as an oppressed creature and women could own property and have right to ask for divorce. This was the religion that existed thousands of years ago and now found it's place in Ancient history or text books. After going through the some of the pages of the bible that concerns women I found that it stresses on the fact that women should submit to the dominance of men.
  
The Biblical view of women

"The social and legal position of an Israelite wife was inferior to the position a wife occupied in the great countries round about... all the texts show that Israelites wanted mainly sons to perpetuate the family line and fortune, and to preserve the ancestral inheritance... A husband could divorce his wife; women on the other hand could not ask for divorce... the wife called her husband Ba'al or master; she also called him adon or lord; she addressed him, in fact, as a slave addressed his master or subject, his king. The Decalogue includes a man's wife among his possessions... all her life she remains a minor. The wife does not inherit from her husband, nor daughters from their father, except when there is no male heir. A vow made by a girl or married woman needs, to be valid, the consent of the father or husband and if this consent is withheld, the vow is null and void. A man had a right to sell his daughter. Women were excluded from the succession."

-Roland de Vaux, archaeologist and priest

The above lines are self explanatory and justifies the fact that the religion that is preached by the majority of people in the world especially in the west that women are meant to act like slaves and should submit to their masters. Adding to this I must now reveal a very hard fact that proves how bible justifies that fact that men are supreme as compared to woman. The Bible's decree of male supremacy has kept woman inferior to men for centuries. For the religious, it comes as a sad fact that a human must have a penis to receive any respect or power within the Church.All woman should realize that such phrases in the Bible has justified for many Christian men, not only their supremacy but a reason to sexually abuse women. If, church could discriminate  on the basis of an organ present in human being then it is not wrong to say that any other form of discrimination between a woman and a man is justifiable. 

Well, this is not the case with christianity only as I go through to understand the role of woman in Hinduism I found that the status of female is either disputed or restricted as compared to male. Hinduism is based on numerous texts such as 'vedas' some of which date back 2000 BCE or earlier. The position of woman in Hinduism is widely dependent on the specific text and context. Positive references are made to the ideal woman in texts such as Ramayana and Mahabharat, while some texts such as Manu Smriti advocate a restriction on woman's rights. I must also mention here that Hinduism advocates the idea that a married woman should remain pure at all costs. But my memory seems to recall a very old and traditional practice of hindu religion that prevailed at earlier times in Hindu Kingdoms which included highly respected professional courtesans, devadasis and female magicians. Polygamy has also been practiced widely in Ancient civilizations preaching hindu religion such as King Dashratha's kingdom and King Vichitravirya's kingdom and in Mahabharta 5 pandavas shared the same wife (Draupadi) and the there are many more examples. A very famous and old demonstration of sex (Kamasutra) also positions women as sex objects is an outcome of Hindu Tantra ( kama shastra). 

In Islam a man could marry 7 times on the condition that he has legally divorced his earlier wife before marrying again. If one believes in the idea of this law a man could legally leave a woman for other one and can enjoy sex with 7 different women and it will be considered right in the light of this law or sharia (Islamic Law). 
However, as we all know that Islam has two major sects the shia and the sunni and this law in general implies to the sunni sect. Islamic nations such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq have their own laws concerning women. They have equally severe punishments for women as they have for men. 


If the world is struggling to eradicate the evils of sex discrimination and gender bias it first has to deal with the orthodox and conservative approach of religious beliefs and teachings because somewhere since beginning we've been taught that a 'girl is a girl' and 'boy is a boy' and both cannot have same place in the society and "weaker sex must submit to it's master".

 

 

An untold story

Today when I sat to write on this issue I was reluctant to write about it. Some call Islam as a complete way of life, some call it a religion of forgiveness, compassion and peace, some fundamentalists and right wing ideologists named it as ISLAM-JEHAD based on their understanding of the religion. Another super power of the world often called it as a religion promoting extremism, religion that produces terrorists and it sights every Islamic nation as a land of terror.

But before I move any further let me help you recall a very old quote by KARL MARX :  "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." 

The west has two ideological sects. Both claim to know 'what is right' and 'who is wrong' and both pretend to oppose bigotry. The Liberals would promote the idea of individual liberty and civil equality while the Leftist take is that they possess an inherited social scientific tool that helps them identify who is 'progressive' and who is 'reactionary'.These two modernist-secularist percepts seem to have become the core layer of the west's approach towards the world. Technically speaking these two modern percepts promote fundamentalist-secularist approach indirectly and due to this very fact west faced a total dismissal by billions of human beings out there. West behind it's modernist-secularist image failed to grasp what billions believe in who have condemned it's policies and approach and slammed it for being anti-Islamic. Because west has failed to understand Islam and it's message completely or may be intentionally, it is now regarded as the creator of the anti Islamic wave around the world that not only affected Islamic world but also other religions. I am saying intentionally because in the history of the US many times some politicians (anti-federalists) opposed their own constitution that has neutral religious approach towards all religions and Islam in particular. They not only opposed the constitutions neutral approach towards Islam but towards Catholics as well. They feared that someday a catholic or a muslim would become president of the states. 


Let us not forget the19th century when atleast one muslim is known to have fought the American Civil War and let us also remember that 'Alexander Russell Webb' who was a US ambassador to the Phillippines was so fascinated by Islam and it's teachings that he converted to Islam in 1888 and he was the first person to represent Islam at the first Parliament of the world's religions. Now in the 21st century almost 25,000 Muslims were serving in the United States Armed forces. What US has failed to understand here is that religion and society are two different aspects of looking at the world. This gave rise to the conflict between the religious beliefs of Muslims and the mainstream American Value system e.g. wearing a scarf is considered wrong as per the mainstream american value system while it is a religious belief of muslim women. I must point out to the fact that in a survey done by Pew poll it has been reported that only 5% American Muslims have favorable view of Al-Qaeda so it very clear from this very fact that a common muslim whether living in america or any other part of the world has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or any other extremist organization and no Islamist supports any kind extremism. If this is not true then why many renowned americans such as Michael Jackson, Mohammad Ali etc. had converted to Islam and if my facts are correct 34,000 Americans have converted to Islam following the events of september 11. These facts and figures are self explanatory.  Being the victim of the most severe allegations and facing so much criticism by a country that calls itself modernist-secularist, Islam and it's followers are growing everyday. To support this fact I am adding a link here which is from the New York Times please go through this: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/22/national/22CONV.html . The report clearly says that Islam has attracted thousands converts before and after 9/11.

It's not only the west that has made Islam the hated religion by millions, some anti-Islamists who were born as muslims have made their own people hate this religion too. If we take a closer look at the Arab world we will find that most the countries were under the influence of the dictatorship until now and how one could forget the 'shia' massacre that happened in iraq during the regime of Saddam Hussain in which more than 3000 shias were allegedly killed just because they were from a liberal sect of Islam and the dictator was a sunni. The recent rising of the Arab nations against dictatorship has changed the perception of millions especially of the US towards Islam and Islamic nations.

Time has gone when people could be fooled in the name freedom and social liberty. West may have invaded  poor countries like Afghanistan and Iraq for it's own economic motives but it has failed to win people and their support. Nothing could be more shameful for a country that is leading the world in technological advancement and economic strength but it has failed to win the trust of it's own people who are getting converted to a religion that US has now termed as Islam-Jehad and it has also failed understand that secularism is itself an outcome of 'christianity'.

'New' India is possible

After all what has happened during the past 63 years after India became Sovereign Democratic Republic in 1947 we've witnessed many big and small incidents and some that had direct negative impact on our society e.g. the emergency of 1975 that led to political unrest in the country and there was a massive crackdown on civil liberties, then the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984 that led to anti sikh riots in which almost 3000 sikhs died and lastly how one could forget the Godhara genocide that happened in 2002 where almost 2000 muslim families have lost their loved ones and became homeless. India still survived and represented itself as a nation that is secular and is ready to accommodate people belonging to any region, caste, religion or creed. 

But one thing as I go back to 1947 and start reading the events that took place after independence I found that major historical incidents that had negative impact on our society and that had shaken the roots of a secular nation were somewhere plotted political conspiracies. However, some people belonging to the political lobby of the state have different take on this, they would rather call it as the outcome of Congress's rule in the country for a longtime after independence and some would call it as the outcome of the pseudo-secular policies of the first national party of the state. I doubted their allegations but after I had gone through the nanvati commission's report I found that 3 main leaders that incited anti sikh riots namely Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and H.K.L Bhagat belonged to the Congress Party. 

Now, as the India story progresses I came across an unsolved issue that has claimed 47,000 lives since 1989 the 'Kashmir' insurgency. It is very unfortunate to witness the bloodshed and communal disharmony in the valley which was once called the 'heaven on the earth' by the mughal emperor Shah Jahan and what's even more shocking is that we had 7 general elections from 1989 to 2009 and witnessed many Prime Ministers coming in and serving the nation namely V.P.Singh, Chandra Shekhar, P V Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deve gowda, I K Gujral and Dr. Manmohan Singh but none of them or their government had tried seriously to solve the Kashmir issue. Thousands became homeless, kashmiri pundits were thrown out of their homeland and thousands of muslims had to sacrifice their lives for their freedom. Witnessing the ignorance of the Indian Government towards Kashmir and it's people Pakistan sighted opportunity in this to weaken India internally and gave birth to many armed rebellions and militant groups and supplied these groups with logistical support, arms, recruits and training. But Pakistan is not the major player in this it is just harnessing a breed of homegrown rebellion against the Indian State. If we go back to 1987 after Sheikh Abdullah's death, his son Farooq Abdullah took over as the chief minister of the state of J&k. He eventually fell out of favor with the Central Government and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has him dismissed. A year later Farooq Abdullah announced an alliance with the ruling congress party for the elections of 1987. The elections were allegedly rigged in favor of Farooq Abdullah and this led to the rise in armed insurgency movement composed, in part, of those who unfairly lost elections. However, I must mention here that during Sheikh Abdullah's regime the state of J&K went through political instabilities as well many times and state went through several period of President's rule by the Federal Government. Not only Pakistan sighted opportunity in this but many other regional promoters of separatist ideology became heroes overnight by criticizing the Indian Government for the lack of sincerity  for the failure of the repeated attempts at the resolution of the kashmir issue and by assuring people of kashmir, freedom (AZADI) and a major political front 'Hurriyat Confrence' came into existence. 

While our NDA government was still struggling with it's own internal issues back in 2002, India witnessed a major genocide of 'Godhara' a town situated in the state of Gujarat. The state was ruled by the BJP'S most controversial leader Narendra Modi as it's chief minister at that time who has his hands in the genocide attacks against the muslims in living in Gujarat and asked the state police to stay back from any such incident and delay the rescue operations as per the 600 pages SIT’S report which 'Tehelka' scooped in. Centre did not took the incident that serious and avoided to intervene as BJP was the ruling party in the state at that time and it's hero Narendra Modi was the main accused of the whole incident.  As a result 2000 muslims were killed brutally and hundreds of families lost their homes.  Until today the main culprit is still ruling the state and justifies the fact that because he’s clean that’s why he got another chance to rule the state irrespective of the fact that Gujarat has Hindu population in majority. 

After witnessing the most horrifying and brutal incidents in the Indian history I tried to recall the Jaliawala Bagh massacre that claimed more than 1000 lives but people who died there fought for the freedom of the nation so I found solace. But the people who lost their lives in the ongoing Kashmir insurgency or the Godhara Genocide or 1984 anti sikh riots how would their loved ones find solace because they’ve been the victims of either the Pseudo-Secular policies of the UPA or the anti muslim approach of the NDA and they didn’t fight against any government or dictator. They were the innocent civilians who have been victimized for dirty political motives.  There were many more such incidents that took place post independence which were equally horrifying and brutal and that clearly implicates to the fact that INDIA has always been the victim of political conspiracies that were inspired by either extremist ideologies or fundamentalists. 

No matter what we’ve witnessed in these years, what we are dealing with today and what’s in store for us in future the idea of a secular, civilized Indian society is still alive and I can say this confidently because the kind of atmosphere we have in the country now was exactly opposite some 20 years back. At that time people were more aggressive and more sensitive towards the controversial religious issues provoked by anti social elements of the society who call themselves the caretakers of the religion.  Yes, no doubt there’s a serious threat to the nation’s integrity from the new term that came into existence ‘saffron terror’ promoted and supported by the right wing ideologists and our government need strict measures to tackle such a form of terror at the grass root level but still there’s hope and everyone could sense that Indian politics is taking a new shape and each party is trying to portray itself as a peoples party dealing with more social issues rather than religious or other controversial issues. There’s a tremendous shift in the ideologies of the orthodox leaders and they now talk about equality, social justice and secularism. Things have just begun to change from old orthodox politics to a new more liberal and transparent political approach and we will witness a new India if we won’t let any international power to interfere in our internal or external affairs.