Discrimination and violence against women rooted in world’s major religions

Image courtesy of Canadian Free Press.

Women’s history month is an especially good time for the followers of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity to awaken to the violence historically embedded in the teachings of the Abrahamic religious traditions that continues to influence the present day treatment of women and gays around the world.

In recent memory, a 13-year-old Somali girl who had been raped by three adult males was herself accused of adultery and publicly stoned to death. In Turkey last year, the father and grandfather of a 16-year-old girl buried the child alive for the crime of speaking to boys on the telephone.

And just days ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the rights of the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church to violate the privacy of grieving families of dead soldiers by parading around and shouting religiously imbued hate speech targeting gays.

In light of all the above, it was appropriate that on March 8, the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Phyllis Chesler’s speech to the Gender Fairness Committee of the New York City Supreme Court was titled: What are feminists doing about honor killing?

Chesler focuses on the honor killing of women within the Islamic tradition, but it’s important not to forget that violence against women in general is deeply rooted in all three of the Abrahamic traditions. 

Since religion is arguably the bedrock of culture, the complete elimination of publicly sanctioned discrimination and violence against women and gays won’t occur until the world’s major religions first clean up their acts.

In her opening remarks, Chesler notes:

When my Second Wave generation of feminists started out, Gender Fairness committees did not exist nor did as many women lawyers and judges or the number of feminist lawyers, both male and female, whom I see here today. As many of you know, my or should I say, our generation had the privilege of changing all that.

We also named and exposed the hidden epidemic of physical and sexual violence towards women and children.

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