GENDER PREJUDICE AND DENIGRATION OF WOMEN UNDER RELIGION !
HINDUISM:-
In Hinduism fate of women has been hanging in between Durga to Devdasi,closer to Devdasi than to Durga.For a long time,because of high valuation placed on the idea of sanyasa in Hinduism,women were despised as source of worldliness. They were regarded as the "torch lighting the way to hell."They were considered to be a bad influence on men,a positive hind
rance in the meaningful development of their personality. Kabir asked men to shun the company of women,saying-"Kabira tin ki kya ghat jo nit nari kay sang".She was looked down upon as a 'potential temptress'.Tulsidas,author of Ramcharitmanas,placed women at par with animal,by saying-"dhol,ganwar,sudr,pasu,
nari-sakal tadana kay adhikari."Yoghi Gorakh Nath has described women as "baghni" a she wolf who robbed men of their youthful vigor. Both Krishna and Shankracharya have described women as "paap yoniya"[product of sin and immorality] and "narak dwar"[door to hell] respectively.
Basically, out present attitude towards women streams from our religious scriptures which refer to women as contempt. Our oldest book are the 'Vedas' which contain highly objectionable and condemn-able passages concerning women. Taking cue from the 'Vedas' authors of subsequent religious scriptures referred to women in more contemptuous form. 'Sati pratha' (custom of burning the widow with the body of her husband), 'Dasi Pratha' (keeping the slave girls), 'Niyog Pratha' (ancient Aryan custom of childless widow or women having sexual intercourse with a man other than husband to beget child), were among cruel customs responsible for the plight of the women.
Naturally, seeking shelter under such religious sanctions, unscrupulous women disgraced women to the maximum possible extent and made them means of satisfying their lust. No one wanted a daughter. As a result; female infant came to be considered unwanted. No one wanted a daughter. Everyone was interested in having a son. The birth of the son was celebrated, but the birth of the daughter plunged family into gloom. This attitude still persists, even though certain other customs have undergone changes.
ISLAM :-
"It is not some sundry alim but Al-Ghazzali himself,who tells us that "merit has one thousand components,only one of which is attributable to women,while nine hundred and ninety nine are attributable to men."It is the view not of some sundry alim but of this ,the most influential of Islam's theologians and philosophers that for eve's disobedience and the moral depravity of women-kind Allah has punished women in 18 different ways,which include Menstruation,Pregnancy,The pain of childbirth,Separation from her parents and marriage to a stranger,the liability to be divorced and her inability to divorce,the fact that it is lawful for a men to marry four wives while she has to be content with one husband,that her testimony counts for just one half of the testimony of a man,that her share in property be half that of her brother and so on."
[Women in Islam,pp 4-5;as quoted in book,'The world of Fatwas,page 594].
HINDUISM:-
In Hinduism fate of women has been hanging in between Durga to Devdasi,closer to Devdasi than to Durga.For a long time,because of high valuation placed on the idea of sanyasa in Hinduism,women were despised as source of worldliness. They were regarded as the "torch lighting the way to hell."They were considered to be a bad influence on men,a positive hind
rance in the meaningful development of their personality. Kabir asked men to shun the company of women,saying-"Kabira tin ki kya ghat jo nit nari kay sang".She was looked down upon as a 'potential temptress'.Tulsidas,author of Ramcharitmanas,placed women at par with animal,by saying-"dhol,ganwar,sudr,pasu,
nari-sakal tadana kay adhikari."Yoghi Gorakh Nath has described women as "baghni" a she wolf who robbed men of their youthful vigor. Both Krishna and Shankracharya have described women as "paap yoniya"[product of sin and immorality] and "narak dwar"[door to hell] respectively.
Basically, out present attitude towards women streams from our religious scriptures which refer to women as contempt. Our oldest book are the 'Vedas' which contain highly objectionable and condemn-able passages concerning women. Taking cue from the 'Vedas' authors of subsequent religious scriptures referred to women in more contemptuous form. 'Sati pratha' (custom of burning the widow with the body of her husband), 'Dasi Pratha' (keeping the slave girls), 'Niyog Pratha' (ancient Aryan custom of childless widow or women having sexual intercourse with a man other than husband to beget child), were among cruel customs responsible for the plight of the women.
Naturally, seeking shelter under such religious sanctions, unscrupulous women disgraced women to the maximum possible extent and made them means of satisfying their lust. No one wanted a daughter. As a result; female infant came to be considered unwanted. No one wanted a daughter. Everyone was interested in having a son. The birth of the son was celebrated, but the birth of the daughter plunged family into gloom. This attitude still persists, even though certain other customs have undergone changes.
ISLAM :-
"It is not some sundry alim but Al-Ghazzali himself,who tells us that "merit has one thousand components,only one of which is attributable to women,while nine hundred and ninety nine are attributable to men."It is the view not of some sundry alim but of this ,the most influential of Islam's theologians and philosophers that for eve's disobedience and the moral depravity of women-kind Allah has punished women in 18 different ways,which include Menstruation,Pregnancy,The pain of childbirth,Separation from her parents and marriage to a stranger,the liability to be divorced and her inability to divorce,the fact that it is lawful for a men to marry four wives while she has to be content with one husband,that her testimony counts for just one half of the testimony of a man,that her share in property be half that of her brother and so on."
[Women in Islam,pp 4-5;as quoted in book,'The world of Fatwas,page 594].
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