Dr Nyhagen On Secularism

Some Feminists argue that religion is still oppressive due to fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism is usually against the increased autonomy of women because it violates ancient religious teachings and arguable male dominance of women. USA anti abortionist’s pro-life groups opposed women’s right to choose beliefs and this has resulted in some extremists blowing up abortion clinics and murdering doctors involved in the abortions. Cohen and Kennedy say fundamentalist reforms are born out of fear of women’s liberation undermining religion and the foundations of society. This illustrates how women are still oppressed by religion because they’re choices are being limited.

Malala Yousafzai, 18 year old Nobel Prize winner and women’s rights activist, once exclaimed: “I raise up my voice- not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back”. The idea of speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves is extremely important when it comes to striving for change, so being able to express the needs of marginalized people is a great and awesome power. Yousafzai’s quote specifically connects to women’s rights, therefore it can be used to support the feminist movement seeing as she is advocating for the equality, in treatment and opportunity, of men and women. Feminist beliefs do not only apply to society, but to theology as well, seeing as the teachings of the bible are extremely influential in the day to day lives and values of religious people. The text that I chose to highlight this idea comes from Elizabeth A. Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God, chapter 5 ‘God Acting Womanish’ because it directly connects spirituality and feminism.

Feminists see religion as an instrument of patriarchy which means that society is based around male domination; they believe that this is a set of beliefs and practices responsible for women’s subordination. However functionalists believe otherwise and argue that its function is not to oppress women but to keep society stable whilst Marxists believe that religion oppresses the working class not females.

The second great force at the turn of the century is itself global: the emergence of women in the public sphere, including the public face of religion. This is in part a function of women's growing economic and political power, but also a result of religion itself coming into the public sphere in new ways. Many aspects of religion have long been considered private and relegated largely to the context of home and family, where women have often been the primary practitioners, though men might dominate in institutional leadership positions. As both religion and women move out of the private into the public sphere, new challenges arise. For example, central facets of family and home – particularly love and sex – which have more traditionally been the purview of women and of religion have entered the realm

In terms of the conflict perspective, it sheds a light on Karl Marx and Max Weber and their take of religion in society. While these two offer different views of religion from a conflict perspective, they suggest that faith has been used to justify or support social inequality. Since the conflict theory focuses on who holds the power in society, they would see where and what power Muslims hold. The feminist theory on this issue would ask how do these restrictions and actions towards Muslims affect women? The feminist theory in the face of Islam is constantly brought up because many people believe Islam oppresses their women. There are claims that the religious garments Muslim wear are oppressing and depleting their womanhood. With a symbolic interactionist perspective, it focuses on the way in which the words and meanings have an impact of interactions to individuals and groups in society. Islam is analyzed with its beliefs and meanings on how it flows through society and its impact within it. Since social problems are created and defined through interaction. Interactionists would look at the interactions to and of Muslims to determine how the social problem arised through expectations and social

Today’s world is all about decisions. Should we get that new television? What about that new iPhone? Maybe the new Apple Watch? Notice how none of those questions had to deal with anything transcendent or in relation to God. Rather these questions focused on the material items that are available practically at the snap of one’s fingers. There is a lack of religious authority in cultural and social organizations in the modern society that we live in. Charles Taylor, in A Secular Age, focuses on showing that God is still present in our secular society, even when it seems as if He is removed. Taylor gives three separate understandings of secularization: separation between state and church with the movement of corporate practices without God, more

The intentions of ‘Feminism’ are still often misinterpreted even today in the twenty-first century despite this being a modern era. Marilyn Frye’s discussion on the role of women in society in the text “The Politics of Reality” focuses on her definition of ‘oppression’, its criteria and how it applies to feminist theory. Frye immediately opens her discussion with this statement; “it is a fundamental claim of feminism that women are oppressed”, (1983, p:1). It is important to note that she has used the word “claim” as it implies that the oppression of women is still a matter of debate. As a disclaimer, she makes it clear that the purpose of this text is not to prove that women are in fact oppressed, but to gain clarity on the meaning of the term

The book, Religion in the Public Square: The Place of Religious Convictions Political Debate (1997), is a presentation of a debate between two foremost thinkers who argue about the place that religion should have in the public forum, more specifically in politics.

“An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights.” Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-activists in North America. Gisela Webb ed. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2000).

In the final chapter of Objectivity and Diversity, Harding puts feminist discourse in conversation with cultural context and religiosity; particularly, I’m intrigued by the future of religious feminism in contrast with the more popular secular feminism. Secularism is an issue that Western feminism grapples with frequently, tending to adopt secular views because of rampant misogyny in religious institutions. This Western secular approach, however, is especially problematic because lends an oppressive characteristic to a movement that otherwise seeks to eliminate oppression; it also irreparably reduces feminism to a one dimensional body of Western secular knowledge. This type of free market feminism is quite indebted to the patriarchal, classist, and racist concept of “secularism” as a superior institutional ideology and continually propagates capitalist forces that oppress women. Nonetheless, it frequently derides religious feminism is for perceived conflicts of interest and the historical role of misogyny in most religions.

At present, women’s issues have occupied a special place in periodicals, literature and art. In spite of the fact that both international and national legislative acts proceed from the principle of equality, in practice women do not enjoy equal rights in public life. There is a noticeable contradiction between the new needs and the lack of conditions in society for their satisfaction: the social consciousness of women increases, they no longer satisfy the stereotype of social roles imposed on them, where the family and motherhood are the only values. The answer to the existing contradictions is found in the women's movements. I'm not an adherent of feminism because I do not think that now women have less rights than men. Several decades ago, there really was a division between men and women, when women were without human rights. In modern society, most women have the right to vote, the right to choose and enjoy the same rights as men; hence the movement itself, in my opinion, is not relevant in the 21st century. On the other hand, there are a couple of religions that consider women unequal with men, and only in this case I support feminism as a movement for women’s rights. So, I do not consider women worse than men and I do not think, that a woman can be used as a thing. “This is particularly clear when cultures openly discriminate against women and attempt to deny them the rights to

In the past, Greer has railed against bras as being “a hideous symbol of male oppression” according to Lisa Jardine, a fellow teacher at Newnham College, Cambridge, a female-only college in England. Greer’s indifference toward the epidemic of FGM is hypocrisy of the highest order and only serves to undermine her radical feminist arguments. It seems Islam is the one religion immune to feminist condemnation.

As FEMEN continues to speak against Islam and their view of the Muslim female "problem", the Muslim women find new ways to ensure their voices are

Islam is a religion based on the interpretation and application of fundamental scriptures geared towards the need of a growing, modernizing religious community. The Qur’an and the Prophet Mohammed’s Sunnah and hadith serve as the main sources for attaining religious knowledge. Scholars of Islam, Ulema, delegated a mechanism in which they can gain knowledge after they have consulted the Quran and Sunnah through ijtihad and qiyas. The flexibility with which they can use reason, ijtihad, and analogies, qiyas, to answer questions of the time created doctrines that shed light onto the growing concerns within the Muslim community. This methodology has served to provide a path in which religious scholars can apply Islam to the changing dynamics of gender roles. The modernizing world provided the framework for female scholars to enter the field of religious study and interpret Islam on their own. Drawing on their reasoning and their ability to make analogies to stories within Islam helped women develop sound arguments within Islam that codified women’s rights. Muslim feminist used the religion of Islam as the backbone of their movement by highlighting their rights and freedoms within Islamic scripture. They opened the gates of ijtihad to reevaluate scripture pertaining to their rights in a marriage free from the nuisances of male scholars. Religious tools in extracting knowledge within the folds of Islam allowed women to challenge existing marriage norms and gender roles based in

In this essay I am going to discuss how the experience of secularization in Egypt exemplifies the inadequacy of Peter Berger’s theory of the process of secularization. I will discuss the differences in Berger’s process and the process evident in Egypt, why Berger’s may have failed to address this. Lastly I will consider Daniel Crecelius’s approach to the question of the secularity of a country that has a secular state but a religious society.