Did Science Put an End to Religious Misogyny - Coursework Example

Nijat Abbasov ENG 102-02 Did Science Put an End to Religious Misogyny? Misogyny that is the fear of women or hatred for women happens to have a longhistorical past. However, it has been found that misogyny got socially institutionalized after the emergence of monotheistic religions. The interesting thing is that these religions in their beginning happened to be respectful towards women and believed in gender equality and justice. Truly speaking, many religious leaders, some of whom may happen to be conservative will still put forward the argument that their religions treat women with respect and that they believe in protecting women from the evils of the world. However, in a practical context, a look at the religious frameworks of most of the world religions reveals that they are mostly dominated by the male clergy, who since ages have interpreted the religious texts in favour of men. In a way these male clergy and patriarchs in fact systematically institutionalized the age old misogynist beliefs inherent in the old superstitions, mythology and folklore by incorporating them in the more recent religious texts. The best example of this is the Christian version of the Adam and Eve story in which Eve is held responsible for bringing death to the world. The anti-woman propaganda turned out by the major religions has caused the murder and abuse of millions of women. As former US president Jimmy Carter pointed out recently, religious discrimination against women is used to “justify some of the most pervasive, persistent, flagrant, and damaging examples of human-rights abuses (Kristof 1).” Considering this, it is widely held that the scientific progress and the spread of the scientific temperament did much to liberate women. To a great extent it happens to be true. Yet, the thing that needs to be acknowledged is that the scientific progress has not totally done away with the biases against women. The reality is that instead of putting an end to misogyny, science has actually accommodated the biases and prejudices existing against women in the traditional religious texts in a very convenient and obvious manner. It is a reality that in almost most of the world religions, is it Christianity, Islam or Judaism, there do happen to be texts, stories and terms which have been used by men to force an inferior status on women. Many a times these stories not only strengthened the already existing prejudices against women, but also provided the material to support and justify the oppression of women in the name of religion. As per the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, “Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified (1)”. Even a very basic knowledge of history supports the fact that in almost most of the civilizations around the world, it was religion that being a strong influence played a major role in shaping the social norms and values. The bad thing is that many of these religious norms and values had to do with the role and status of the woman in the society. Hence, religion did play an important role in forcing such norms and values that extended a weak status to the women in the society. It could easily be said that in that context religion did play a convenient tool in the hands of a society traditionally dominated by men to limit the extension of equal say and opportunities to women in all spheres of life. Or to be more precise, religion in varied forms did spread and support a misogynist value system that considered women to be inferior to men. The religions all over the world contrived special norms and rules for women at the pretext of protecting the honour and dignity of women. However, it is very easy to understand that the real purpose behind these rules was not to protect women but to oppress and control them. In fact, even in the present times many religions justify these special norms and rules as being necessary for protecting women from evil. These religions do believe that women being weaker than men can easily get influenced by evil and hence religion needs to control and protect them. Thereby, the misogynist views and beliefs systematically institutionalized by religion over time gained a strong hold in the society. Actually, many societies that were earlier oppressive towards women started using religion as a pretext to justify and support the oppression of women. Hence, religion that was dominated by men right from the start was used as a force and power to press the domination of men over women. The other thing is that the politics and economics in these societies also got influenced by these misogynist beliefs. Hence, a mix of religious, political and economic beliefs led to the creation of societies that upheld misogynist values. Hence, it was religion that made women weak in all areas of the society. Hence, as was natural, the misogynist ideas contained in religion did not remain limited to religion alone. They did find out a way into other aspects of the society. In all ages as in the present times, people did look towards religion as a source of values and morals. In that sense the religion did provide the societies with a moral order. However, the power of religion did not remain merely confined to morality only. The misogynist attitudes supported by religion did influence the future developments, which included the scientific development and progress. Since in the past times religion influenced society, economics, culture and history, it was natural to expect that it was also to influence scientific development and progress in the times to come. In that context, it does need to be mentioned that many Western scientific approaches and views were directly influenced by the misogynist biases inherent in the religion. In the earlier times when science was still at its infant stage, the scientific methods were not that well developed. Hence the religion got a chance to influence and colour the world of science. Thereby, the one way religion influenced science was by making it biased towards women. For Instance, Paul Broca, the father of the now dead science of Craniometry, considered women to be intellectually and mentally inferior to men (Gould 152). Broca held that women happened to be mentally much inferior in comparison to men and incapable of the mental progress that men were naturally capable of (Gould 156). According to the writer Stephen J Gould, Broca was convinced that “women had smaller brains then men, and therefore, could not equal them in intelligence (153).” Hence, the world of science that was expected to be fact based, actually got coloured by the religious misogyny. It is a fact that scientific progress over the years has done much to better the life of people, especially in the Western world. However, in many ways this progress is limited to material progress only. It has failed to influence the social norms and values influenced by religious misogyny. Science did do much to advance and open up the world. However, it is sad to say that it failed to kill the prejudices prevalent against women. When it came to bettering the status and position of women, science did not play a positive and active role. Even in the most advanced Western societies, which have benefitted much from science, science has failed to extend equal opportunities to women in all aspects of life. Even today in many Western nations, women do not exert a strong influence over the social and political life. This is happening despite the immense scientific progress made by these nations. Even in the most developed and powerful Western democracy that is the US, women received the right to vote only a few decades ago. Things are even worse in the developing nations. As per the Washington Post columnist Caitlin Dewey, women in some Asian countries are in fact treated as a property item (1). Much of this could be linked to the dominant religious norms in these nations. The bad thing is that irrespective of the fact that the developing nations are welcoming scientific progress, they are not willing to give up age old religious misogyny. In the words of the columnist Nicholas Kristof, “women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths (1).” Certainly, science has not improved this. In fact, if one looks at the cruelties done to women in many parts of the world in the name of religion, the idea of scientific progress appears to be a big joke. For instance in many African nations, the act of rape are used as a tool to correct the women who are considered to be guilty of violating religious and social norms. In many African nations, “Corrective rape is a hate crime wielded to convert lesbians to heterosexuality- an attempt to ‘cure’ them of being gay (Strudwick 1).”On the one side the developing societies want to have rich economies by adapting to scientific progress. Still, the sad thing is that the progress of science in these societies in no way seemed to have bettered the state of women. On the one side even the religious leaders in such societies support scientific progress. They also want the people to get rich. But on the other side they do support the unequal status of women so as to protect them. They consider women to be weak. They believe that women still need the protection of men. They can easily go bad. For instance Saudi Arabia is the most developed economy in the Middle East. Still, in Saudi Arabia, the women are not allowed to move out without being accompanied by a male family member (Ahmari 1). In Saudi Arabia, women are also denied the most basic right to drive an automobile going by the religious belief that this will corrupt them (Ahmari 1). It is surprising to find that a society that is increasingly allowing science to influence most of the aspects of its economy and culture is totally unwilling to do so when it comes to improving the status of the women. This shows the weakness of scientific progress before the ancient religious beliefs. Even in the present times, there are societies that believe that women have no right to education. The Taliban gunmen in the Swat region of Pakistan shot and injured a school going girl Malala Yousafzai. They did so because she decided to go to school despite a warning by the Taliban, stopping girls from going to school. The press statement given by Taliban after this act that “her crusade for education was an obscenity (Walsh 10)” explains everything. However, the power of religion over science does not always happen to be as clear as mentioned above. Sometimes religion may express its power over science in an indirect way. For instance in Christianity the Eve is said to have been created from the rib of Adam. Thereby Eve was considered to be inferior to Adam. This belief led to the oppression of the women in the ancient times. This belief could even be found in the modern Western society. There is a section of the Western scientific community that has picked up the religious belief that women are inferior to men (Gould 152). Yes women do differ from men. Scientific studies have shown that the brains of women do differ from men (Cahill 1). The sad thing is that many scientific minded experts do use these scientific discoveries as an excuse to preach that women happen to be inferior as compared to men. Hence, like religion, even science has also become a tool to support misogyny. Hence, the world of science is as critical of women as the world of religion. According to a study undertaken by Jenny Rohn, “New research reinforces the idea that the accumulation of small, inherent biases against women in science can hinder their environment (Rohn 1).” The traditional religious misogynist beliefs have entered the world of science. Science instead of weakening these misogynist beliefs has accepted them to support the male superiority. This is really sad. Hence, it is a big reality that traditionally speaking, religion had been used as a tool to control and suppress women. A study of many of the important world civilizations and religions does support this conclusion. The biases and prejudices against women existent in most of the major religions did eventually enter the societies that accepted these religions. Thereby most of the religions did strengthen the traditional belief that women happened to be inferior to men. Besides, in many parts of the world, religion was used as a tool to commit crimes against women. These religious biases against women entered the field of academics and science also. Science, instead of challenging the religious misogyny, actually used it to support the position of men in the world of scientific research. This prevented women from achieving academic fulfilment and success in the same measure as the men. Science did extend many freedoms to women in a direct or indirect way. Still, it can do much to further challenge the religious misogyny. It is high time that the religious leaders, institutions and communities around the world should take steps to do away with the illogical biases and prejudices against women. They need to open their minds to the true spirit of science. Women do have the right to have a fulfilling and free life not controlled by religious rules. Truly speaking women are as capable of progress as men. Hence, the major world religions must take steps to extend an equal status and respect to the women and science must help in this area. Works Cited Ahmari, Sohrab. “The Woman who dared to Drive”. The Wall Street Journal 22 March 2013. Web. 25 April 2014. Cahill, Larry. “His Brain, Her Brain”. Scientific American May 2005. Web. 25 April 2014. Dewey, Caitlin. “7 Ridiculous Restrictions on Women’s Rights Around the World”. The Washington Post 27 October 2013. Web. 25 April 2014. Gould, Stephen Jay. “Women’s Brains”. The Panda’s Thumb. New York: WW Norton, 1992. 152-159. Print. Kristof, Nicholas D. “Religion and Women”. The New York Times 9 January 2010. Web. 25 April 2014. Rohn, Jenny. “Women in Science, you have nothing to Fear but your Own Subconscious”. The Guardian 27 July 2012. Web. 25 April 2014. Strudwick, Patrick. “Crisis in South Africa: The Shocking Practice of ‘Corrective Rape’- Aimed at Curing Lesbians”. The Independent 4 January 2014. Web. 25 April 2014. Walsh, Declan. “Taliban Gun down Girl who Spoke Up for Rights”. The New York Times 9 October 2012. Web. 25 April 2014. Read More