Religion is the main enemy of women’s development
The one
whose wife dies is lucky. But not so the man whose cow dies
(A
Bengali proverb).
Until a society is not based on religion and women are
considered equal to men before the law, I do not think that politics will
advance the cause of women. Every day, women continue to be victims of rape,
trafficking, acid-throwing, dowry deaths and other kinds of torture. At the
opening of this new century, women are still not considered as equal human
beings in many parts of the world. Religion and patriarchy continue to have an
all- encroaching hold on their lives, maintaining and justifying their age-old
oppression. In some South Asian societies, this hold is even increasing.
I do not believe that there can be real equality in a society
dominated by religion. Western countries speak repeatedly about the necessity
of economic development to alleviate poverty. But this is not enough. Societies
such as Saudi Arabia may be economically developed, but women are deprived of
all rights. The supremacy of religion is incompatible with freedom of
expression, women’s rights and democracy. This is why I see religion as the
main enemy of women’s development.
We have to act on several fronts at once. First of all,
improving access to education. In a society like Bangladesh, 80 per cent of
women are illiterate. For centuries women have been taught they are the slaves
of men. It is very hard to change their minds, to make them aware of their
oppression, to give them a sense of their independence. This educational effort
has to go hand in hand with a secular feminist movement in society. Such
movements have to start within the country and they cannot take hold when
people are uneducated and unaware of their oppression. I’m not sure you can
accomplish much from the outside, except to expose in the media the atrocities
women in all too many countries face in their day to day lives. In Muslim
countries, this movement is emerging, but very timidly, and it has a slim
margin of manoeuvre. It has the uphill task of fighting for the repeal of
religious laws and the introduction of a uniform civil code. So far, it tends
to be constituted by a few individual feminists who are forced to be
diplomatic, to compromise with fundamentalists, be they men or women. But they
are trying to change the system, step by step, and it will take a very long
time. People are not yet ready to do away with religious laws that have
ever claimed to be from a divine source. Qur’an is a book of some poetry and
some weird stuff and nothing more. It is not a revelation from a divine being
revealed to Muhammed as Muslims claim. The first book was written some
25 to 60 years after Muhammad died and was a compilation of what his two
youngest wives Ayesha and Hafz’a could recall. This book was burned and
destroyed a century later and the existing one was produced.
As they say, “You cannot tell a book by its cover.” The same
is true for a book that sounds good to the ear if you are not able to
understand it. Or that it rimes like poetry. It is the contents that are
important and frankly the content of Qur’an is mostly rubbish.
Parvin Darabi is holding Ph.D. Degree in electronics
engineering. She is an Iranian dissident living in USA. She is the co-author by
the book “Rage against the veil” biography of her sister Dr. Homa Darabi who
was immolated in Teheran street protesting against the brutal rule on veiling
system in Iran.
For women’s status to change, we also need enlightened
leaders who believe in equality. In countries such as mine, women with a strong
voice do not have the support of political leaders, whether they be men or
women. Look at the countries in which women are in politics, or even heads of
state. Does it follow that women in those countries are emancipated? Because of
long-standing vested interests, such leaders continue to back measures that
oppress women. They are not ideologically committed to changing these
conditions. In South Asia, most of the women who become heads of state are
religious and like men, they adhere to the religious objectives or the
Establishment. I am the victim of a country where the Prime Minister is a
woman. Because I went one step too far in denouncing religion and the
oppression that it keeps women under, I had to leave my country.
I have seen women oppose me when I talked about women’s
rights. They said straight out that God did not believe that women should have
so many rights. And I have met men in my country who are against what is said
in the religious scriptures and believe in equality between men and women. It
does not depend on gender. It depends on one’s conscience. Muslim women who are
wearing the veil and glorifying their subservience are obviously not going to
better the lives of the oppressed.
Until a society is not based on religion and women are
considered equal to men before the law, I do not think that politics will
advance the cause of women. In Western countries, women are educated, they are
treated equally, they have access to jobs. In these conditions, their
participation in politics has a meaning.
Education, a secular feminist movement, and leaders-both men
and women committed to equality and justice. This is what it will take to
change the dire conditions which too many women still face today. It will take
a very long time, but we are here to work towards that end.