TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Nadia Berenstein
June 5, 2009

What sort of religious institution honors a “run-like-hell Catholic” and the first Asian-American woman Rabbi, among others?

Abigail Disney claimed to be shocked that Auburn Theological Seminary would choose to honor her at its Lives of Commitment Breakfast. "There are lapsed Catholics and then there are run-like-hell Catholics," she quipped, putting herself in the latter category. Nonetheless, Disney, philanthropist and producer of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, an award-winning documentary about Liberian Muslim and Christian women who unite to oust a dictator and end a civil war, admitted that her work is "powered by faith."

Auburn Theological Seminary, a multi-faith educational and research center, proclaims that its "faculty and graduates participated in the great social movements of the times, including the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the struggle against fundamentalism." At its thirteenth annual Lives of Commitment breakfast, held May 28 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan, about 650 people celebrated the central role that women of faith play in healing and repairing the world. Disney and the three other honorees—16-year-old Fatima Haidara, who received the 2009 Young Healer Award presented in partnership with The Sister Fund, Rabbi and Cantor Angela Buchdahl, and environmentalist Wendy Paulson—represent not only diverse backgrounds, but also the diverse ways in which the call to service can be heard and acted upon. Previous honorees have included Faye Wattleton, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Sister Helen Prejean. Although not always overtly religious, these women’s work is informed by spiritual values just the same.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Abigail Disney, Auburn Theological Seminary, faith, Fatima Haidara, Nadia Berenstein, service, women

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Stand up for fight for the weak, the ill, the persecuted

Wesley G. Hughes, Staff Writer
04/05/2009

I've had a hankering in the last few years to be an ethicist, not one of those ivory-tower or mountaintop kinds of guys but sort of a shade-tree, back-of-the-envelope kind of thinker on things right and wrong.

I'm not sure what impels the thinking of those other ethicists with the letters behind their names but what gets me going is the evil that men do or allow to be done to the weakest, meekest and most innocent among us.

And it's usually not something I've been thinking about for a long time. It's as though someone slapped me in the face with it like a big wet fish. It gets your attention.

A good example of that kind of attention grabber is when I learned of the festering outbreak of child prostitution going on right here in this county and just to the west in the Pomona area. It's not just there and in Ontario and Claremont. Those seem to be the only cities that have acknowledged it and are attempting to do something about it.

It seems unlikely that ethics and war go hand in hand but I promise I'm going to wage war against child prostitution and the evil merchandisers and users of these child slaves in every way I can. And I'll be talking about the enablers who allow it to go on under their noses.

Another example of one of those fishlike epiphanies occurred a couple of years ago. I remember it well, not the exact date but the moment.

It was probably a Saturday. I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking my coffee and reading the paper, looking forward to working the crossword puzzle.

I turned the page and the wet fish got me. There before me was a large photograph of a beautiful child, whose face was disfigured by a cleft palate and lip. It caught me so by surprise that it brought tears to my eyes.

The photo was in an ad placed by The Smile Train...

The Smile Train became my favorite charity and I've written about it in this space before and I wear and never remove one of those rubber wristlets - what do they call those things anyway? - bearing The Smile Train name. There's a pang of guilt that goes with that. It's been too long since I sent a contribution. It's time.

The final fish I'll use today occurred Saturday.

I don't usually stick my nose into religious issues but I'll make an exception for the story that I read in Saturday's New York Times. It was about a 17-year-old girl, who was publicly flogged by a Taliban commander in the Swat region of Pakistan. Someone caught it on video.

Why this incident affected me so, I don't really know. Over time, I've witnessed and read so many vile things done in the name of God that I should not be surprised. That includes the religions granted freedom of worship by our Constitution right here at home.

Fortunately, they don't have completely free reign here. If my neighbors dragged my daughter into the street and flogged her for missing Sunday school, they'd have more than just me to deal with.

They would be prosecuted and punished (if there was anything left after I got through but then of course, I'd be prosecuted too. We have a good system).

This final item came together in my mind Saturday with the children, who are prostituted ...They too are beaten and abused and have no power and no choices. It doesn't matter whether it's done in the name of commerce or the name of religion. It should be stopped.

It extends beyond children to women everywhere. A woman should have every right to live her life with the same freedoms as any man, no matter where on the planet, the color of her skin or the name of her religion, or if she chooses, without religion.

Those are my ethics.

Labels: children, ethics, exploitation, persecution, Wesley G. Hughes, women

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

The Why Chromosome: are men necessary?

March 28,2009

BOOK REVEIW: "Herland" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in 1915.

Careful guys...this is a bit of tongue-in-cheek writing, but - what if???

What if women were to evolve the power of parthenogenesis – the ability to procreate asexually or without sex? It sounds like something out of the X-Files, right? Well, actually there are animals today, certain geckos and snakes for instance, that already have this ability. And if this ability exists in nature, then those who accept evolution should certainly accept the possibility that humans could also evolve a similar specialization – at least, it shouldn't be considered completely impossible in the grand scheme of Darwinian thought.

After all, it would only take one woman with this characteristic, a slight variation in the genetic code, to change humankind forever. In fact, when you consider that these animals with this strange gift are entirely female, and only produce female offspring with this same gift, this means that one woman with this strange ability could eventually devastate the entire male human population, making the future human race exclusively female.

The question then becomes: what use does the male of the species serve? Why are men, other than to procreate, even necessary? How would the world change without men, without male power and influence on politics, science, religion, art, philosophy, government, labor, sex, and war? Would sex, or our notion of its necessity, simply disappear as men vanish from the face of the earth?

In her polemic "utopian" novel Herland, originally published in 1915, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates a similar scenario, addressing these questions and more. Gilman even takes it one step further by placing her exclusively female-built civilization side-by-side with the male-dominant society of her time, allowing her to criticize and satirize the male-dominant world by comparison.

Herland is the story of three scientists, sociologist Vandyck "Van" Jennings, geographer and meteorologist Terry Nicholson, and botanist and poet Dr. Jeff Margrave, who accidentally stumble upon Herland during a scientific expedition that nearly cost them their lives. Their notes, reports, and scientific data were all lost during their escape, and all that remains is Van Jenning's memory of the details collected in this one text.

As a sociologist, Van is the man best suited for the job of describing their adventures. Van's buddies, however, are the opposite sides of the same coin, each representing an extreme male personality. Handsome, rugged, adventurous, Terry Nicholson mistakenly projects his macho-masculine thoughts and expectations of the women he's more familiar with onto the women of Herland. Dr. Jeff Margrave, described as "a tender soul," is much different in thought and temperament than Terry. Jeff is interested more in the "wonders of science" than the cold, hard facts of scientific data that rule Terry's logical thinking.

It's important to note that Gilman is a socialist, which means that religion, however important to Gilman, does not include the existence of any recognizable God. Gilman will attack the masculine flaws of these foreign men using their own beloved science as well as their religion against them, in order to promote the idea of a single human consciousness without gender – a sort of feminist/socialist vision of the religion practiced in Herland, a collective mental outlook developed over the course of 2,000 years of continuous culture with no men. The men in her book, essentially held as prisoners, are taught the Herland language, culture and history. These men are unknowingly put on trial, as the open-minded women of the unisexual Garden of Eden consider the pros and cons of allowing the men to remain in their land and embracing a new bi-sexual society. What follows is a hilarious but ultimately sad portrait of a masculinity unworthy of such a union.

Perhaps Herland seems like a ridiculous utopian farce or like some creation of a science fiction writer. But have you heard of Natasha Demkina, the young woman in Russia who, according to The Discovery Channel, has been baffling scientists with her apparent ability to see through solid objects? In essence, some say this young woman has developed a kind of X-ray vision. Whether it's true or just a hoax, imagine the implications of a human being with this ability.

Either way, it's easy to see that Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland is a smart, funny, thought-provoking story worth consideration for both men and women alike. It's a fascinating book that makes one think, laugh, wonder, dream and maybe, perhaps, question his or her own views of the gender issues still plaguing Ourland.

Labels: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Frank Mundo, gender, Herland, parthenogenesis, women

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Friday, March 06, 2009

Women More Religious Than Men

By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director
28 February 2009

A new analysis of survey data finds women pray more often then men, are more likely to believe in God, and are more religious than men in a variety of other ways.

The latest findings, released Friday, are no surprise, only confirming what other studies have found for decades. Still, the new numbers illustrate interesting and stark differences. They come from a fresh review of data that was collected in a 2007 survey and initially released last year by the Pew Research Center. The percent of women (and then men) who:

* Are affiliated with a religion: 86 (79).
* Have absolutely certain belief in a God or universal spirit: 77 (65).
* Pray at least daily: 66 (49).
* Have absolutely certain belief in a personal God: 58 (45).

The survey involved interviews with more than 35,000 U.S. adults by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

George H. Gallup, Jr., in an analysis for the Gallup polling organization back in 2002, wrote that the differences in religiosity between men and women have been shown consistently across the previous seven decades of polls.

Among the reasons women tend to be more religious:

* Mothers have tended to spend more time raising children, which often means overseeing their involvement in church activities.
* Though two-income households are more common today, in the past women often had more flexible daily schedules, permitting more church involvement during the week.
* Women tend to be more open about sharing personal problems and are more relational than men. Other Gallup research shows a higher proportion of women than men say they have a "best friend" in their congregation, he wrote.

Lastly, Gallup argued, "More so than men, women lean toward an empirical [depending on experience or observation] rather than a rational basis for faith."

There may be another reason. Rodney Stark, a professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington, flips the question around: Why are men less religious?

"Studies of biochemistry imply that both male irreligiousness and male lawlessness are rooted in the fact that far more males than females have an underdeveloped ability to inhibit their impulses, especially those involving immediate gratification and thrills," Stark argued in a 2002 paper in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

The upshot is that some men are shortsighted and don't think ahead, Stark said, and so "going to prison or going to hell just doesn't matter to these men."

Stark may have purposely overstated the case, but you get the point. My wife suggested another reason: Life is simply harder for women. While I can't argue with that, I also can't find any research connecting that to prayer or church attendance.

Labels: faith, George Gallup, God, Pew Research Center survey, prayer, religion, Robert Roy Britt, spirituality, women

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Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Happiness is ...

Published: January 07, 2009
By Jeff Mullin, Commentary

According to the Web site usa.gov, the most popular New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, manage debt, save money, get a better job, get fit, eat right, get a better education, drink less alcohol, quit smoking, reduce stress overall, reduce stress at work, take a trip and volunteer to help others.

One that is glaringly absent from that list is a simple one, to be happy.

That, of course, begs the question, what makes you happy?

There were, as of Tuesday morning, 6,752,062,211 people on this planet, give or take three or four. Ask each one their definition of happiness and you would likely get 6.7 billion different answers.

Some people say being rich would make them happy, or being thin. But what about all those skinny millionaires on anti-depressants?

One thing happy people don’t do, according to researchers, is watch television.

John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, has authored a study that says unhappy people watch more television than happy folks do.

2008 was not a happy year for many Americans, it seems. A group called Precision Opinion polled 1,385 Americans just before the end of the year and found 32 percent of respondents said their personal level of happiness dropped during the year.

That might relate back to watching television. The average American, according to Nielsen Media Research, watches 142 hours of television a month. That’s eight hours and 18 minutes per day, up an hour a day from a decade ago.

In the Precision Opinion poll, men were found to be less happy than women, Democrats (despite the results of November’s election) were unhappier than Republicans and those older than 51 were unhappier than younger people.

Of course, this was a telephone survey, so perhaps these people were simply unhappy about being called away from doing something that makes them happy, like watching TV.

On a side note, it is not really correct to say you are feeling blue if you are especially unhappy, since the color blue, according to a study by English scientists, makes us happy.

Happiness, no matter the color, is apparently contagious. Another recent study has found we can catch happiness from others. On average, according to the study co-authored by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard, every happy person in your social network increases your own chance of being happy by 9 percent. And the happiness bug is hard to kill, it seems. The researchers say the effects of catching happiness from someone else can last up to one year.

Even being around a happy stranger can do more to lift one’s spirits, according to this study, than receiving a $5,000 raise. I am perfectly willing to accept a $5,000 raise simply to test this theory, in case my bosses are reading this.

How do you define happiness? The author of “Human Happiness — Its Nature and its Attainment,” Michael Fordyce, lists these traits of happy people.

Happy people, he says, are social and productive. Happy people have a healthy self-image and have flexible goals. Happy people are optimistic, but also realistic. Happy people are motivated, focused and socially adept. Happy people are content with their successes. Happy people were raised in positive, nurturing and safe environments.

In a poll of British women, those who said they were happiest were those who wore a size 14. A poll of Russians found happiness one of the prime wishes for the new year, along with finding a new job and staying healthy.

Americans used to be urged to “Be Like Mike,” while in India people want to be like Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar, a cricket star, was voted India’s No. 1 role model of health and happiness in a nationwide survey.

In the aforementioned Precision Opinion survey, 64 percent of Americans surveyed were happy to see 2009 come, convinced the new year would be a happy one for them. I hope they are right.

Labels: happiness, Jeff Mullin, men, Precision Opinion, Sachin Tendulkar, women

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Friday, January 02, 2009

Economy takes a toll on mental health

Edward Guthmann, Chronicle Staff Writer
(01-01) 17:17 PST --

In October, the American Psychological Survey reported that 83 percent of American women and 78 percent of American men were experiencing heightened stress over job stability, housing costs and the loss of retirement savings.

Women, the study said, are today more concerned with money issues than their personal health. Women of the Baby Boomer generation are especially distressed: Worries about the economy rose from 18 percent in April, to 92 percent in September.

Coping with crisis

For anyone touched by the economic crisis - and very few aren't - the escalating levels of stress and anxiety require tools that weren't needed in less troubled times. Bay Area psychotherapists suggest these coping mechanisms:

-- Exercise, rest, eat healthful foods.

-- Talk to people. Don't hold worries and anxiety inside. Not talking about fear and stress only reinforces those feelings.

-- Volunteer - be of service to others.

-- Look for positive distraction. Start a new hobby; watch a favorite movie.

-- Get some support. Seek professional help, or go to one or two friends who are good listeners and won't judge you.

-- Socialize. Get out of bed, out of the house. See family members and friends on a regular and frequent basis.

-- Meditate. Take long, deep breaths. Getting oxygen to the brain gives your body the message that you're not in danger.

-- Talk with your kids. Give them a context for understanding the economic crisis and your own anxiety. "Fear is the No. 1 threat to our collective mental health right now," says Mill Valley psychotherapist Jan Edl. "I believe the best antidote is to support a cultivation of staying awake and present. It's a good time to have an inner life or spiritual practice."

Labels: coping mechanisms, Edward Guthmann, mental health, the economy, women

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Clergy invited to participate in unprecedented survey

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, November 24, 2008
[Episcopal News Service] All ordained women in the Episcopal Church -- and 1,500 male clergy -- are beginning to receive invitations to participate in what is one of the comprehensive studies of female clergy by any denomination in recent years.

Every ordained woman -- deacon, priest, and bishop -- will be asked about her aspirations, needs, and experience of how ministry is lived out through her life. The Called to Serve survey is unprecedented in the Episcopal Church for its attempt to obtain responses from those in both paid and unpaid ministry, those actively engaged in ministry, those who are taking time out, and who are retired. It also seeks the input of young new clergy, second-career clergy, those ministering in two-career families, and those ministering as single parents or caregivers.

Inclusion of both women and active and retired men is meant to give comparative data on careers, and men's needs for family leave as well as retirement. It is also meant to help the church understand the way the call to ministry is being lived out in 2008.

The survey is "the first to include and hear the voices of those in non-institutional and non-traditional ministries" in the same survey as those serving in traditional ministries, according to the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, one of two research consultants working on the project.

Nesbitt said her conversations with research colleagues show that the scope of the Called to Serve project is also unprecedented among denominations.

Researchers want to learn about how ordained women and men have ministered in the past, what they think their ministry might be like in the future, and what constraints on their choices they experience, he said.

The survey will consist of a combination of check-the-appropriate-box questions and questions for which people can write fuller answers. The two types of questions are meant to give a more complete picture of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, Price said.

There also will be opportunities to volunteer for a confidential research interview.

Coming as it will during Advent, Price said he hopes clergy will consider the survey as a chance to reflect on their vocation, and take the opportunity to share part of that reflection with those who will be influencing ministry policies and ordination preparation in the church. The study is expected to help the church analyze, improve and sustain ordained ministry as a vocation.

Called to Serve is the third survey of Episcopal Church employees that has been conducted during the 2007-2009 triennium. An earlier survey considered lay employee demographics, the exercise of authority in the employment setting, and compensation and benefits. The second survey studied the way the church provides health care coverage to its employees and the feasibility of changing current structures.

A letter was recently sent to the Episcopal Church's 4,026 ordained women and 1,500 ordained men. The letter says participants will soon receive an email with a link to the online version of the survey. Participants can request a paper copy of the questionnaire. All responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Women clergy who do not receive the letter by December 1 or the e-mail invitation by December 8 should request a link or paper copy by contacting CalledToServe@cpg.org or calling Andrea Van Zile at the Church Pension Group (800-223-6602 x9474). If people think the Church Pension Group may not have their correct mailing or email address, they can also contact customer service at 800-223-6602 to update that information.

Labels: Called to Serve, clergy, Mary Frances Schjonberg, ministry, vocation, women

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Friday, September 19, 2008

How different faiths view major issues

By CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN • USA TODAY •
September 18, 2008

God is punishing us.

Guardian angels protect us.

The Earth is in grave danger.

So finds Baylor University’s newest survey on Americans’ religious beliefs and practices.

The survey, to be released today, is based on interviews with 1,700 adults conducted in fall 2007. Among the highlights:

Environment

Evangelicals less worried about global climate change

Most respondents to the Baylor Religion Survey agree that “if we do not change things dramatically,” global climate change will be ”a disaster” (67%); coal, oil and natural gas will be exhausted (70%) and most plant and animal life will be destroyed (57%).

But evangelical Protestants are significantly less likely (55%) than other religious groups to be alarmed about global climate change or to forecast destruction of life unless changes are made (49%).

While 56% of U.S. adults say the government is not spending enough to improve and protect the environment, fewer evangelicals do — 41%, says Baylor sociologist F. Carson Mencken.

Indeed, evangelicals are at least twice as likely as any other major religious group to say the government is already spending too much. Most likely to say spending is too little: Jews, 81%, and people with no religious affiliation, 79%.

Environmentalism has been controversial among evangelicals. When the National Association of Evangelicals launched a “Call to Action” on climate change in 2006, some religious conservatives, led by James Dobson of Focus on the Family, strongly opposed it.

Gender and politics

Are women suited for politics? Americans are deeply divided

The survey reveals deep divisions over women’s roles in society, splits that may play out in the November elections.

For example, 33% of Americans say ”Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than most women.” But 44% of evangelical Protestants agree, more than other Christians and markedly higher than Jews (29%), other religions (23%), and those with no religion (14%).

The Baylor data was gathered in 2007, when Sen. Hillary Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination, but long before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the Republican vice-presidential ticket, putting motherhood and gender in the spotlight. Palin is a mother of five, including an infant with Down syndrome.

Both Republican candidates are evangelical Protestants (John McCain is Baptist and Palin non-denominational). Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a mainline Protestant (United Church of Christ), whose running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, is Roman Catholic.

The survey also finds:

• 41% say a preschooler suffers if the mother works (54% of evangelicals say so, nearly double for other groups).

• 31% say “it’s God’s will that women care for children” (48% for evangelicals).
Will these views shape votes?

Tragedy and evil

Dealing with evil: Candidates disagree

God either causes or allows “major tragedies to occur as a warning to sinners,” say 20% of U.S. adults.

While 43% say most evil is caused by the devil, 47% disagree — a statistical tie.

But most (68%) would not say human nature is basically evil.

So where does evil dwell — in the devil or in mankind? The Baylor survey allows for overlapping views; it finds 36% strongly agree with both statements.

"Those who believe God causes or allows bad things to happen did not speak in terms of tragedies being God’s fault,” says Baylor sociologist Christopher Bader.

Bader says people told him that “tragedies are our fault. We have sinned as a nation and God has stood aside and allowed terrible things to happen.”

Among the questions that the Rev. Rick Warren asked both presidential candidates at his Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency was, ”Does evil exist?” Both candidates said yes.

Sen. Barack Obama said it is “God’s task” to ”erase evil from the world” but “we can be soldiers in that process.”

Sen. John McCain said, ”Evil must be defeated,” and linked it entirely to “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century — radical Islamic extremism.”

Labels: Barack Obama, Baylor Religion Survey, Cathy Lynn Grossman, environmentalism, evil, John McCain, politics, women

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Faith leaders reach out to get men in the pews

Faith leaders reach out to get men in the pews
By Teri Greene

Women are the majority in 21 of 25 Christian denominations, according to the recent U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, and some local pastors say they see those statistics reflected in their own churches. And while it affects the congregation, it hits families especially hard.

Some area churches are doing everything they can to encourage the presence of men in the sanctuary and in the community as outreach volunteers.
A new approach

Nationwide, many churches are brainstorming new ways to bring in the men.

One simple difference

A basic difference in the way men and women see themselves, as people and as members of the faith community, could be the factor behind the under-represented male population in many churches, some pastors say.

Many pastors acknowledge this difference between the genders when it comes to religion.

Sixty-two percent of those who attend church regularly as adults say that as children they went to church with both parents, according to a new survey of 1,007 adults by Ellison Research, a market research firm in Phoenix. If only one parent went to church -- usually the mom -- the likelihood of the adult regularly attending dropped to 50 percent. If neither parent took them to church, 33 percent now attend.

Women can have a key role in turning the negative trend around - or at least finding ways to compensate for it -- said Katrina Todd, public relations director at Pilgrim Rest. As a woman whose husband often has to work Sundays, Todd sees how problems can easily arise.

"I think sometimes our roles get reversed, because the men are taking on more hours at work and the women pick up the slack and do what's needed," she said.
Finding 'home'

But sometimes, it's more complicated, Todd said.

"I have spoken with some female friends and sometimes it's an issue of, they can't come to a common ground of the denomination, so the mom just decides, 'I'm going to go on with this denomination,'" taking the children with her and leaving dad at home.

Hoomes said it may just be a matter of whether the man is receptive to the church his wife and family are attending.

"My experience has been that churches appeal to individuals based on their own preference and past experiences," said Hoomes, adding that men of all ages serve in leadership positions at First Baptist. "Our pastor, Dr. Jay Wolf, describes worship styles like restaurants, different choices to meet different needs."

Todd's advice for women facing this dilemma: "Just encourage your husband and decide you will go to church wherever you feel the spirit together," she said. "Say, 'Let's make this decision as a family. What's going to be the best church to fulfill our needs? What has the best ministries - for youth or marriage, or whatever we need? Let's go out and research together and find out what's going to work for the family.'"

The way the church sees men is an important factor, said Gilbert, who acknowledges that the number of men in his congregation has begun to grow.

"We're not focusing on how bad they are," Gilbert said of church members in men's ministries. "We're saying, 'What can we do to better equip you to deal with the pressures of being a father or husband?'"

He said increasingly popular culture is bashing men, and that needs to be reversed.

"Men are saying, 'At what point do I feel welcome?' Here, we have somebody helping men to improve," Gilbert said. "Women have led us, carrying the household, doing more than they were called to do. Men need to go further, to step back and take their rightful place, becoming leaders in their households."

Labels: Christianity, church, men, religion, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, women

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Monday, June 09, 2008

African American Muslim Women are a Rare Gift

Given our unique perspective on history, we are prepared to engage in struggles for social justice both within the Muslim community as well as for all Americans, and indeed, every global citizen, says Aisha al-Adawiya.

New York - African American Muslim women are a rare gift in that we have a unique perspective on what it means to be Muslim in the United States. Our historical references as women are specifically honed and readily available to address issues of oppression and struggle for liberation as well as opportunity and success.

We have experience communicating with those different from us in faith and culture; we have the stamina needed for a sustained struggle in the interest of social justice. Our lives are intertwined with those who oppress and those who seek to liberate.

Most of us were not raised by Muslim parents; we grew up in predominantly Christian households and were schooled in ethics, community service and self-reliance. But we were looking for a new spirituality. We wanted a new way of life that would speak to our current existence while taking into consideration our exigent past. Islam was the answer.

When we adopted Islam, the teachings that were already ingrained in us – such as the respect of parents and elders, responsibility to family, kin and neighbours, a strong work ethic and commitment to self-improvement – became even more pronounced. Our new religion provided us with a structure for the lessons we'd been taught throughout our lives.

We continue to be nourished by the daily practice of Islam. We lay claim to the strong women who surrounded the Prophet Muhammad, such as his wife Khadija, as our role models. They forged a clear path for us since they were among the first Muslims and, like us, had embraced Islam while living in a predominantly non-Muslim society.

Many Muslim women struggle against cultural oppression within their societies. But while immigrant Muslim women struggle as new minorities in the dominant culture, the African American Muslim woman has a knack for understanding the terrain that must be scaled due to our historical knowledge of how oppression manifests itself.

We carry the scars of centuries of enslavement and the residual effects that persist to this day. We have lost – and continue to lose – our children and loved ones to pernicious institutional racism manifested through policies of abuse and neglect, such as economic deprivation, criminalisation of our youth, substandard health care, and inferior education. Based on these experiences, we can offer lessons learned to Muslim immigrants struggling to realise the promises America makes to new arrivals. At the country's doorstep, Ellis Island, we say to them, "Give me your tired, your poor huddled masses yearning to be free".

Many of us have come to feel that Islam has been a vehicle of empowerment for African Americans, and African American women specifically. We can thus speak concretely about the vast potential the religion offers not only to women, but all humanity, in the realm of personal spirituality, community, equality and justice.

Given our unique perspective on history, we are prepared to engage in struggles for social justice both within the Muslim community as well as for all Americans, and indeed, every global citizen. But we cannot call for constructive change in the larger society and not address the social ills within our own ranks.

Issues such as honour killings and domestic violence must be addressed and resolved. We must help break down the cultural barriers that prevent all Muslim women from seeking education, attending mosque, and participating in Islamic organisations and civic projects. Failing to do so would be in direct contradiction to the examples of those very women we have taken as our mentors.

At the same time, we also seek opportunities to build coalitions with others across racial, religious, ethnic and socio-economic lines to bring about equality, equity and harmony not only for ourselves but also our neighbours. The historical experiences of African Americans, combined with those of Muslim women, have taught us the value of collective effort for peace and social justice.

Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya is the founder and executive director of Women in Islam, Inc., an organisation of Muslim women that focuses on human rights and social justice. This article is written for the Common Ground News Service and can be accessed at GCNews.

Labels: African-Americans, Aisha H.L. al-Adawiya, culture, faith, Muslims, women

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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Mourchidat - Morocco's female Muslim clerics

26/04/2008

Just inside Rabat's walled medina - with its market stalls selling fake Gucci sunglasses and bzeghir, traditional Moroccan pancakes - stands the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, an octagonal building resplendent with bougainvillaea and a fountain. This is the seminary where a revolution is under way. Two hundred student imams sit in long rows in disciplined silence as their tutor, Hussein Ait Said, addresses them. All the students are wearing robes and have a copy of the Koran on their desk, but 50 of them also have handbags and, more surprising still, a pair of white slingbacks is just visible in the fifth row. These are the women who are training to be mourchidat - female priests - the second intake at the seminary.

The mourchidat (meaning 'female guide') first made news in April 2006 when the Moroccan government announced with great fanfare that the first 50 had graduated. Funded by the government, the initiative is part of a wave of liberal reform begun by King Mohammed VI in 2004. 'This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world,' Muhammad Mahfudh, the centre's director, says. The mourchidat will help women with religious questions, with their education and give support in schools and prisons. The long-term hope is that by working face-to-face with the community, they will help foster a more moderate Islam.

In the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, the female student priests are taking a morning break. More than 400 women applied for the 50 places. The prerequisites are an exam, an interview and a BA. Candidates are also required to have a life grounded in the Koran, by which is meant memorising it, and an understanding of tajwid, the art of Koranic recital. Men have to know the entire text by heart; women, half of it. Once accepted on the course, students are given a grant of 4,000 dirhams (£360) a month. To rent a room in a shared house, as many students do, costs about a quarter of that. The youngest woman on the course is 22 - 'baby mourchidat!' - the oldest nearly 40. Lessons include Islamic studies, psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management, plus three hours of homework a day.

The seminary where the mourchidat are taught is inside Rabat's walled medina
Men and women learn side by side, but only men will be able to lead prayers. Does she mind? 'No, because it is from our religion,' Haddad replies. 'We are not shocked or belittled by this.' How do the men treat you? 'There is distance, manners in our relationship.' Any criticism? 'If there is, they don't say it to our face…' She pauses and smiles, 'so perhaps…'

Women have come a long way since pre-independence days, but Morocco is still a divided society: one where some women are modern, educated and forging ahead in high positions in politics, business, medicine, law - about 25 per cent of professionals are women; yet nearly 70 per cent of women are illiterate (89 per cent in rural areas) compared with 41 per cent of men, according to 1999 government figures.

In some rural areas, a woman who is beaten or abandoned by her husband with no means of livelihood has only one course of action: words 'of spiritual impact' to her husband are written on a piece of paper by the local imam. The woman then keeps the piece of paper, hoping it will somehow change her husband's behaviour.

The idea for the mourchidat was first discussed in 2003, but its roots go back to 1999, when Mohammed VI came to the throne. He promised a new era of openness and democracy after the 38-year repressive dictatorship of his father, Hassan II. First to go was the palace harem - some 40 women. Next was the interior minister, Driss Basri, who had run Hassan's security system for 20 years, and was feared and detested like no other. The king also remodelled himself as a champion of women's rights, approving modifications to the Moudawana, the family code, in 2004, including raising the age of marriage from 15 to 17.

But the landmark event that paved the way for the mourchidat took place in 2003. In a radical break with tradition, the king invited a woman - el Mekkaoui - to give the Ramadan lecture at the royal palace in Rabat, attended by members of the government, high-ranking military officials and foreign ambassadors. It was the first time a woman had even been allowed to enter the room, let alone permitted to speak.

But in Morocco the monarchy has all the power, and the parliament plays a marginal role. The true power is in the hands of the people close to Mohammed VI. And the two other people instrumental in the formation of the mourchidat are senior advisers to the king: Professor Abdelhadi Boutaleb, a well-known Islamic authority; and Ahmed Toufiq, the minister of Islamic affairs. Boutaleb publicly stated his support of women's rights soon after Mohammed VI came to power in late 1999. Islam, he noted at a public meeting of the Woman's Network, a coalition of some 200 volunteer organisations, was a 'message of renewal and reform', and he cited verses that demonstrated that Islam advocated the equality of men and women - 'It is true that a bird needs two wings to fly.'

On graduation, each mourchidat is assigned a mosque, which can be anywhere in Morocco, although the ministry in charge aims to find somewhere close to their families. The mourchidat offer spiritual advice and teach women the Koran, but also discuss more contentious gender-related issues - about sex, women's health, what to do if your husband beats you - issues that women would not dream of asking an imam. They are paid 5,000 dirhams (£420) a month, and work long hours, both in and outside the mosque.

Since the introduction of the mourchidat, Turkey has also challenged traditional Islamic gender roles with the appointment of 450 women as preachers - or vaize. The Diyanet, or Directorate of Religious Affairs, which controls the Islamic faith in Turkey but also tries to improve women's rights, sees the appointment of female vaize as a crucial step forward.

But many Moroccans see the mourchidat as 'government propaganda', particularly those from one Islamic movement, the Justice and Charity Association. There are two main political Islamic organisations in Morocco: the Justice and Development Party (PJD), which takes part in elections; and the Justice and Charity Association, which is tolerated by the government but banned from mainstream politics because of its open hostility to the monarchy. (Both these groups have publicly condemned violence and castigated terrorists who attacked the World Trade Centre. But just as forcibly, the two organisations condemn 'American terrorism'.) Marvine Howe, the author of Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Conflicts, points out that the Justice and Charity Association, 'is of overwhelming importance. It's the strongest party in the country, even though it isn't actually a party.'

Justice and Charity supports feminist ideals (its spokesman is the charismatic activist Nadia Yassine), seeing Muslim women as being liberated through the original teachings of the Prophet, and not by imitating a Western model of emancipation.

'We've been carrying out a programme of education and training for women in Morocco for more than 20 years in mosques,' argues Maryem Yafont, 37, the head of Justice and Charity's women's section, who says that her party has long had women acting as informal mourchidat.

To the great embarrassment of the government, several mourchidat from the first intake to graduate turned out to be supporters of Justice and Charity. 'Now the ministry carries out inquiries to find out if they [students] belong to our movement or not,' Yafont says, 'so they have to keep it secret.'

Back in the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, Zakia Haddad is about to resume morning lessons. Haddad is to be tested on three verses from the Koran, in front of a large group of male students. But she is not nervous. 'There is a big difference between an imam and a mourchidat,' she says. 'Women have more patience,' she laughs, 'they are more generous, and because women are mothers they are more nurturing, more giving - like a mother among people, that is what our role is from God.'

Labels: clerics, Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, Morocco, mourchidat, Muslims, Turkey, women

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Faith news

March 29, 2008

— One in every ten voters in America believes Barack Obama to be a Muslim, a survey has revealed. White evangelical Protestants and Americans from the Southern, mid-Western and rural states are the most likely to hold this view, according to the poll commissioned by the Pew Research Centre.

— A hotel in Nashville is removing the Bible from its bedrooms and offering guests a “spiritual” reading menu instead. Reports in the Tennessee press say the Hotel Preston will invite guests to call room service to ask for the religious book of their choice. The selection offered will include the Koran, Book of Mormon, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism as well as the King James Bible. “Our guests come from different places and they definitely come from different cultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, so we want everyone to feel welcomed and comfortable,” said Dina Nishioka, public relations director for Hotel Preston.

— A German security agency has published a teenage comic illustrated with Manga cartoon sketches as an attempt to combat the appeal of Islamic extremists. One hundred thousand copies of Andi, a comic relating the adventures of a schoolboy with a Muslim girlfriend who is influenced by a radical preacher, have been published and distributed to every secondary school in Germany. They have been produced by the intelligence and security department of the interior ministry of North-Rhine Westphalia. Spokesperson Hartwig Moller explained: “We had to make clear we weren't aiming against Muslims, but only those people who want to misuse Islam for political aims." The magazine is intended for use in citizenship and religion lessons for 12-16 year olds.

— Yale University is running a course on the theology of Harry Potter. Danielle Tumminio, a graduate from Yale Divinity School has devised a study programme that examines Christian themes of sin, evil and resurrection in JK Rowling's seven Harry Potter books. She described the course as “a critical endeavour” adding that she did not wish to “indoctrinate students.”

— A church magazine in Canada has become the first sponsor in North America of a travelling exhibition devoted to the life and work of Charles Darwin. David Wilson, editor of The United Church Observer, decided after learning the exhibition had attracted no corporate funding that the magazine should sponsor the exhibition. “There is nothing in the exhibit that threatens or diminishes religion. If anything, it shines a light on the inherent beauty and wonder of a creation that is constantly and eternally evolving,” he explained. Darwin: The Evolution Revolution is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto until until August 4 and will later come to the Natural History Museum in London.

— The governing body of the Church of Wales is to vote on whether women should be ordained as bishops. The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan said: "I do not personally see how, having agreed to ordaining women to both the diaconate and priesthood, the church can logically exclude women from the episcopate.” The vote will take place on Wednesday when the governing body is due to meet.

Labels: Barack Obama, Bible, bishops, Darwin, Harry Potter, Islam, women

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Inside Islam, a woman's roar

Wazhma Frogh, an Afghan, uses her religion to press for women's rights – and development agencies take note.

By Jill Carroll
from the March 5, 2008 edition

Page 1 of 2 - Please click on external link for complete article

Just hours after Wazhma Frogh arrived in an isolated, conservative district in northeastern Afghanistan in 2002, the local mullah was preaching to his congregation to kill her. Ms. Frogh was meddling with their women with her plan to start a literacy program, he told the assembly.

As she walked past the mosque during noon prayers, his words caught her ear. Shocked, she marched straight into the mosque. In a flowing black chador that left her face uncovered, she strode past the male worshipers and faced the mullah. Trembling inside, she challenged him.

"Mullah, give me five minutes," she recalls saying. "I will tell you something, and after that if you want to say I am an infidel and I am a threat to you, just kill me."

She then rattled off five Koranic verses – in both Arabic and the local Dari language – that extol the virtues of education, tolerance, and not harming others. She criticized local practices of allowing men to use Islam to justify beating their wives, betrothing young girls, and denying women an education.

The room was silent. All eyes were on Frogh and the mullah. Then the mullah rested his hand on her head.

"God bless you, my daughter," he said.

With that, Frogh won permission to start the literacy program that later helped women from Badakhshan Province participate in local government and run for the national assembly.

Where rigid interpretations of Islam relegate women to second-class status, Frogh uses rhetorical jujitsu to turn religious arguments on their heads and win women's rights. Her steely determination has earned her attention in Washington.

"In a country where religion is so important to people, we need to understand the religion," she says. Arguments based on principles of universal human rights or on what international conventions say don't persuade many Afghans to support reforms, she says. "[M]y experience in the last 10 years is this does not matter to the people in Afghanistan," she says. Only religious arguments hold sway.

The international development field has lately seen more of that approach, says Rachel McCleary, a fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard. In the 1960s and '70s, foreign aid became more secularized, but now religious groups are a growing presence in international development work, says Ms. McCleary.

Frogh is like a number of Islamic scholars – from the United States to Yemen – who are using religious jurisprudence to argue that women have greater rights under Islam, convince leaders in Muslim communities to make reforms, or even turn around extremists who use Islam to justify violence. As an Afghan Muslim, Frogh is in the best position to persuade other Afghan Muslims to support her various projects, experts say.

"The fact [that] this woman is from within, and from the culture and society is much more powerful and salient than if a woman from outside said the same thing," says Eileen Babbitt, professor of International Conflict Management Practice at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Labels: Afghanistan, Islam, Jill Carroll, literacy, religion, Wazhma Frogh, women

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Woman to woman

March 8, 2008

A mentoring minisry

By Ann Greenleaf Wirtz
Special to the Times-News

"As young moms we admired the mature spirituality we saw in the older women, especially since many of us were in those early seasons of motherhood, with all the challenges of parenting coupled with taking care of our husbands," Reid said.

"We wanted an experienced, Godly perspective on how they had raised their children to adulthood and survived," Reid smiles. "They had wisdom to share and it was encouraging to hear their stories.

"It was 2003, and Betty Brown had the vision to begin a mentoring ministry. She has since moved, but she left behind the program she started from a ladies' tea and a survey to determine interest. We ended up with enough older and younger women to do a test run," Reid explains.

The test run has turned into a continuous, five-year blessing for all who've participated in the ministry. The model is designed for a mentor and mentee to share concerns, Biblical counsel, prayers and fun throughout a six-month commitment.

Many needs met

Lisa Nelsen, who recently became a mentee, confirms the needs this ministry meets. "My mother lives in California, and my husband has to travel some with his work. We have a son who's 4 and an adopted 2-year old daughter from Guatemala. I have a wonderful family, but I felt the Lord pushing me to become involved because I was feeling alone at times and very busy with the children and needed someone close-by to talk to."

When the decision is made to participate in this ministry, a profile card is completed. Information about hobbies, interests, and essential beliefs are listed, as well as the desire to be either a mentor, a mentee, either, or both.

Martha Roach, who heads the prayer warriors, describes the matching process. "We cover the entire ministry in prayer, from beginning to end. Once we have the profile cards, we sit down and pray for the Lord's guidance in matching mentors with mentees and the prayer warrior who will be assigned to them. We believe if the Lord doesn't build the house, it doesn't stand. We are sensitive to his leading, his nudging, and we give him all the credit for the success of the matches."

Relationships continue

"Sometimes, however, the mentoring situation doesn't seem to work out," Funk says, "for whatever reason. More often though, the mentors and mentees want to continue their relationship beyond the 6 months because their interactions have been so beneficial."

"I've definitely been given a God-match," Nelsen says, "because my mentor, Penny (Oesterling), has been in similar situations, and her advice and spiritual beliefs have been such a help. I want to be where she is. I've started reading the Bible more to gain that close relationship with the Lord that shines in Penny.

Penny Oesterling began a mentoring ministry at her church in Rochester, N.Y., and after moving to Hendersonville several years ago, has continued her commitment to helping younger women by joining the mentoring program at First Baptist. "The Lord instilled this desire because of an experience I had with a friend who was 12 years older. While that's not a lot of difference, she shared parenting advice; helpful because I didn't have any relatives living nearby.

"We became close, even as couples," Oesterling said. "They mentored the Christian life to my husband and me. My friend never realized the extent of her impact until years later when I started the mentoring ministry, inspired by our relationship.

"We're always influencing others, either positively or negatively," Oesterling says. "It's important we train women to love God, to help them understand how to love their husbands and children."

Woman to Woman Mentoring at First Baptist is called "A Titus 2 Ministry," based on Titus 2:3-5, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

On her profile card, Oesterling wrote that she wanted a mentoring relationship "led by the Lord in which he can use me to be a Titus 2 woman." He has done that through her relationship with Lisa.

Labels: Ann Greenleaf Wirtz, mentoring, ministry, women

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Friday, January 04, 2008

Women and religion

By BONNIE ERBE

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

It is easy to see why women suffer less anxiety when they are active in religious organizations. Women most often make up the backbones of their churches/temples/mosques, even though most major religions exclude them from leadership. Clearly women derive much from their participation or they would not take part. What is harder to understand is why men do not enjoy similar benefits from these affiliations or why there's such a marked gender difference on this issue.

A new study produced by Temple University's Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., and published in Science Daily magazine and sciencedaily.com, revealed the following results. Women who were active in organized religious communities (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.) and who later became disengaged were more than three times more likely to suffer generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported "always having been active."

"Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active."

Gender differences in medicine are now widely proven. Women get certain diseases more or less frequently than men, have different reactions to drugs, fare better with certain types of surgery and (of course) have different hormones than do men. It's no mystery that a whole field of medicine has arisen during the past two decades to study and treat men and women differently.

It's less apparent why religious affiliation would impact men and women so differently. I'm a big believer in mind over matter. We've all heard about cancer patients who outlived doctors' expectations by a matter of years. We all know terrific "fighters" who braved the odds and took on their illnesses, while others succumbed quickly to them. But victors and the vanquished are represented in both genders.

What makes religion so much more of an antidepressant and anti-anxiety agent for women? Are women better, more fervent believers than men? According to legendary stereotype, men are more practical, less emotional and more realistic than women. (I'm not saying I buy into these stereotypes -- I merely raise them as common assumptions.) Do these putative attributes make women less susceptible to religion, less religious than men?

It was after all a man (Karl Marx) who, however discredited he may have been on other fronts, wrote, "Religion is the opium of the people."

The study's author offers an entirely different potential explanation for these gender differences. Dr. Maselko is quoted as saying, "Women are simply more integrated into the social networks of their religious communities. When they stop attending religious services, they lose access to that network and all its potential benefits. Men may not be as integrated into the religious community in the first place and so may not suffer the negative consequences of leaving."

While she may be right, her explanation makes two assumptions, one of which may be wrong and the other of which is controversial. The first, that when women stop going to church they lose touch with the social networks they formed while going, may be wrong. The second, more controversial, is that the "social networking" women take part in at church, rather than their actual belief in God, that decreases their anxiety and depression levels and improves their health. It would be far less controversial to presume most religious women would attribute their improved mental health to their belief system and to their faith, rather than to their church-based support networks.

It is also counterintuitive on at least one level to believe that men derive less from church-going than do women. Men occupy the loftiest positions in church hierarchy, decide church doctrine and interpret religious law. More importantly most believers see God as a male form.

Wouldn't men then also get more out of church-going than women?

And yet experts say no. Clearly we're from different planets.

(Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail bonnieerbe(at)CompuServe.com.)

Labels: anxiety, Bonnie Erbe, men, religion, Science Daily, Temple University, women

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

UF study: Men more traditional than women about marriage, children

October 24, 2007.
GAINESVILLE, Fla.

Women view childlessness much more favorably than men do, likely because parenting places greater demands on mothers, especially those juggling work and family responsibilities, a new University of Florida study finds.

Parenthood has very different consequences for women compared with men, said Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox, a UF sociologist whose study is published in the November issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

The study also found women to be less optimistic about the benefits and permanence of marriage. Women were more likely than men to disagree or give neutral responses to such statements as “it is better to marry than to remain single” and “marriage is for life.”

“The results suggest that women regard both childbearing and marriage as being less central and more optional in women’s lives,” Koropeckyj-Cox said. “Because opportunities for women have changed more rapidly than they have for men over the last 30 years, and with it women’s lives, their attitudes may have also changed in ways that reflect new options and challenges. Women may be asking more questions about whether everyone needs to follow the same path.”

The study of 11,043 adults 25 and older uses data from the 1980s and mid-1990s that were part of two large-scale surveys, the National Survey of Families and Households and the General Social Survey. It assessed attitudes about childlessness by asking such questions as whether “it is better to have a child than to remain childless” and whether “the main purpose of marriage these days is to have children.”

The study found that white women were most accepting of childlessness, followed by black women. Men, regardless of race, were least accepting. Among whites, women were twice as likely as men to have favorable impressions.

The gap in attitudes was particularly wide between college-educated men and women of childbearing age, Koropeckyj-Cox said. Men in this group were the least accepting of childlessness of any group in the study, she said.

Positive attitudes toward childlessness also were greater among young and middle-aged adults. Within this age group, women were nearly 80 percent more likely than men to report favorable attitudes toward childlessness, the study found.

Among religious groups, the study found that Baptists and Jews were least likely to support childlessness, while fundamentalist Protestants and Catholics were not significantly different from other Protestants or those reporting no religion.

Receptiveness to childlessness has increased since the 1970s, with Americans waiting longer to become parents, Koropeckyj-Cox said. The average age of first-time mothers is now over 25, and more than a quarter of adults remain childless into their 30s, she said.

Kathleen Gerson, a sociology professor at New York University and author of the book “Hard Choices: How Women Decide About Work, Career and Motherhood,” said Koropeckyj-Cox’s “important findings make it clear that changes in women’s lives are here to stay. While it may seem surprising that women view childlessness more favorably than men, her study should prompt us to jettison our lingering stereotypes and focus instead on helping contemporary women — and men — blend work with parenting.”

Labels: children, Journal of Marriage and Family, marriage, men, Tanya Koropeckyj-Cox, University of Florida, women

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Monday, October 22, 2007

Iraqis divided by constitution's treatment of women

Supporters say Article 41 will keep the state out of civil affairs. Critics say it will usher in Sharia.

By Tina Susman,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 9, 2007

BAGHDAD -- It has been nearly 30 years since she got married, but Iraqi legislator Samira Musawi still bristles at what she considers the ultimate indignity: a law requiring witnesses to certify the rite.

She and her husband-to-be grabbed a couple of strangers, gave them each about $10 and were legally wed.

That memory is one reason Musawi, who heads parliament's Women, Family and Childhood Committee, supports Article 41, a clause in Iraq's interim constitution that supporters say will prevent state meddling in civil affairs by allowing Iraqis to marry, divorce, decide inheritances and settle other personal issues according to their religious sect. For example, under Shiite law, no witnesses are required for a marriage, but Sunnis require two.

Article 41 is just one line in the 16-page document, but to critics, it is the worst.

Opponents, including women's rights activists and legal scholars, say the one poorly worded sentence opens the door to rule by draconian interpretations of Islamic law that could sanction the stoning of adulterous women, allow underage girls to be forced into marriage and permit men to abandon their wives by declaring, "I divorce you," three times.

In the southern city of Basra, there are already signs of religious extremism being used to rein in women. Police say gangs enforcing their idea of Islamic law have killed 15 women in the last month. "There are gangs roaming through the streets . . . pursuing women and carrying out threats and killing because of what the women wear or because they are using makeup," the Basra police commander, Maj. Gen. Abdul Jaleel Khalaf, said this month.

Sometimes notes are left on the women's bodies saying they were killed for violating religious law or social traditions.

The controversy highlights the broader debate here over how large a role religion should play in Iraqis' lives. It also underscores shortfalls of the original constitution, which was drafted in 2005 by newly elected Iraqi legislators facing a U.S.-imposed deadline. Redrafting the document is one of the benchmarks sought by the Bush administration to set the stage for an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal. But it has been delayed three times as lawmakers haggle over issues such as provincial powers, religious and cultural freedoms, and distribution of oil revenue.

There are only two women on the 25-member committee in charge of rewriting the constitution. They face formidable opposition from the Shiite Muslim lawmakers who dominate Iraq's parliament, including Humam Hamoodi, who heads the panel.

Hamoodi, whose robes and turban attest to religious devotion, scoffs at opposition to Article 41. "You're considering it a big deal!" he said, laughing. "This is a kind of liberty and freedom. This is the age of democracy."

Musawi agreed. A Shiite who wears a prim black tunic and a leopard-print head scarf, Musawi says she does not want non-Muslims to be governed by her beliefs. Article 41 ensures this cannot happen, she said.

But, she said, it also recognizes the reality in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, where most lawmakers, including many of the 75 women in the 275-seat parliament, represent Shiite religious parties.

For many Iraqi women, the reminder of what is at stake became clear in May when a video circulated of a 17-year-old girl being dragged through a mob of braying men, who pelted her to death with rocks and paving stones. The girl, whose gruesome death was captured on several cellphone cameras, had violated the rules of her minority Yazidi sect by having a relationship with a Muslim man.Her killing and the reprisal attacks on Yazidis that ensued illustrate the problems inherent in not having a single law covering all Iraqis' domestic affairs, critics of Article 41 say.

"I am sure we will be hearing stories like this over and over again," said Luma Ali, a 23-year-old engineering student who opposes any role for religion in government. "I cannot believe this is still happening to us women."

"It is really an insecure world for women in Iraq," said a female friend, who was afraid to give her name. "Everything is subject to development in Iraq -- everything except the way women should live, marry and die."

Labels: Article 41, Iraq, religion, Tina Susman, women

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

For the Next 7 Generations: The Grandmothers Speak

Thirteen elder women, representing 13 tribes of earth, join to share their wisdom with the world.

Labels: grandmothers, prayer, religion, video, wisdom, women

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Friday, August 31, 2007

The Role of Women in Sikhism

This video is a refreshing and inspiring view of the role of women in Sikhism given by Guruka Singh.

Labels: Guruka Singh, Sikhism, women

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Stained Glass Ceiling

Aug. 20 - Decades after the ordination of women in most Protestant churches, women still find it difficult to get senior positions in big congregations. (Producer: Brent McDonald)

To view this video, please click on "Link to external source."

Labels: Brent McDonald, ministry, ordination, Stained Glass Ceiling, video, women