Kuznetsov,+Serg

What is the role of women in Hindu, Christian and Muslim religions?
 * __** __ Research Question __ **

** __ Introduction __ ** Most religions are based on compaction, understanding and equality of the world. However, some religions leave out a very big part of the equality, the rights of women. They try to reach the state in the world, where everyone shall be equal, but the equality mostly comes to men, and women are left out. Some religions like Hinduism do not do that, but even they favor men. In this paper, the different religion’s understanding of what women’s role in the world is, and how they should be treated. 3 religions will be discussed. They are Hindu, Christian and Muslim. They were chosen because ironically they all state 3 different things. Muslims, do not have much respect for women, while Hinduism has a lot of respect towards both men and women. Christians are somewhere in the middle. While not specifically saying that men are “better” they are never saying that women are equal, and in the bible, the only woman that is mentioned is the virgin Merry. __**  ** __ Interpretation and Analysis. __ **  They are one of the only known religions that at least try to show equality between males and females. Gender does not matter as much to them. Gods do have gender in Hinduism, and for every male god, there are female gods. In western religions, if something like that would happen in a western religion, then female gods would probably be goddesses of peace, or something to that extend. However in Hinduism, the male god, Brahma, is the creator, and Vishnu is the preserver of this world. Goddesses show a lot more uncertainty then gods, but it is interesting how even gods and goddesses are very even. However most if not all of Hindu heroes are male! Even thought that they try to show how equal all of them are, they forgot to mention, what women did! It is not possible, for women not to accomplish anything during such a long time that Hindu religion has existed. ** Muslim perspective. **  Most sources indicate, that Muslims do not have much respect for women. In the holy Quran, it does state that women are not as human as men, and that men can marry as many women as he likes, but a man must not be abusive towards a woman. “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.” Muslims try not to be too unjust towards women. They try to protect them from any injustice that could be done towards them, but even though, the do not see them as human as man. Most Muslims grew up this way, and consider that to be the only correct way to live, and consider our “equality” wrong. They disagree with the fact that women have so much “freedom” in western countries. ** Christian perspective  ** “All ** men ** are created equal”. That is what Christian church says. Even with unarmed eye, the favor men over women. They never state that they do not consider women less then men. They always try to hide behind equality. The problem is, that they do not say that women are equal to man. Women are treated well in Christianity. There are a lot of nuns in the monastery but it is very interesting that the pope is always a male. There have not been much female priest in the history of Christianity, if any. Nun’s job is to help others, just like what priest has to do. However, a nun is a pretty low title in the church. It defiantly does not come close to even a priest. They are more of nurses then doctors in the hospital. Also, it is important to say that there are hardly if any female angels. Most of them are men, who have very important jobs and connections with god. Most importantly, when “smart” Christians are quoted, only 1 out of 20 people was a woman, that was quoted. The equality between males and females in Christianity is a lot more then a mile away. It is hard, and maybe even impossible to achieve something that was wronged for such a long time. ** Compare and contrast. **  Hinduism is one of the most respective religions in the world. They consider both men and women as close to equals as possible, even though they do not have a lot of women “Heroes”. Christianity is taking 2 steps down. They never say that they are disrespectful towards women, but they do not say that they are respectful ether. They do not disrespect them, but they have a lot less status in the church then men do, and as historical figures, the Virgin Merry is the only woman that is ever mentioned in the bible, and she is only mentioned because Jesus couldn’t be bourn out of nothing. The Muslim religion takes even 2 more steps down, and the only part of respect for women is, that they do not want to be unfair towards them. A man is more of a human then a woman, so he can have as many wives as he can. Women are not treated equally in any of the three religions. Some Muslims consider them to be just dress up dolls, which they can do almost anything to. Christianity uses that against them in a lot of ways. There is even a Christian website, that clearly says that all Muslims are bad, and Christians are not like that. Of course, it is nowhere near the close equality that Hindu religion has. This makes Hinduism the most respective religion of 3, Christianity on the second place and last come Muslims. None of the 3 religions are bad, but even though they try, they do not have full equality with man and women. ** Themes  ** All 3 religions speak about equality, and try to achieve it, but only Hinduism actually is able to accomplish it. Christianity tries to do that as well, but they are still very discriminative towards women, in a way of not letting them go up their “ladder”. Unfortunately for Muslim women, the equality there will come as soon as pigs start flying, but apparently they do not seem to mind it a lot. It all depends on the perspective that a person was taught while he or she were growing up. ** __ Final thoughts/reflections __ ** What did you learn? I have learned a lot of things from this project, but one most important thing was that no matter how hard people try; full equality can’t be achieved between man and women. One of the two has to be dominant. In the community of amazons, women were always dominant, and in the community that we live in, men are on the top. What connections did you make? I have connected the topic to the true problem that exists even in now days. Even though we are getting close to equality between the two, men are still not letting the women get threw as much as a man in her situation would. Why is it important in today's world? Like I said before, women are not getting as much opportunities as men do, which is very unfair. It is important to learn about that topic, to know how much different it is in other cultures. Bibliography. [] [] [] "Christian Inspirational Quotes." Inspirational Quotes. christians, n.d. Web. 2 Dec 2010. []. De., Soumen. "The Historical Context of The Bhagavad Gita and Its Relation to Indian Religious Doctrines ." Essays on Ancient India. (1996): Print. Skeptic’s annotated quran. Trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali. The Gita "Bible research and teachings." True bible study. 1'st. Web. .
 * Hindu perspective. **