Philosophy Now Forum

there has been a lot said on this form about islams sexism

and in general it is very common to hear about how sexist islam is

but say anything bad about hinduism or buddhism and people get their underwear in a bunch

hinduism and buddhism are in so many peoples minds somehow enlightened where judeo christian religions are oppressive and intolerant etc

but the worst place in the world to be female is India - http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/asi ... ?hpt=hp_c1

I have visited India. In my opinion. Hell on earth.

Buddhism whether you consider it a religion or form of atheism regards women as second class. However being a non-repressive system uses denial instead.

http://www.thai-blogs.com/2010/10/15/bu ... -for-women

This is one of the few articles I could find on women and Buddhism, clearly a boys club and does raise the issue why do women, when it is not imposed upon them freely choose to be follow one?


Ironically the best answer I can find to this question comes from one of the main reasons so many women in India have converted from Hinduism to Islam, sexual liberation. Hinduism treats women so badly even Islam is a major improvement.

Are there any teachings within Hinduism that lead to the type of act in the story Kayla linked to? It looks much more like an economic decision within a particular cultural context than a religiously motivated act though. If girls were considered a better investment is there anything to suggest that boys wouldn't just suffer the same fate that currently befalls some girls?

Kayla wrote:... but the worst place in the world to be female is India ...

Oh come on! Surely its where genital mutilation is still practised and some of the current civil wars Africa make it a far worse fate than to be an Indian women.

You forget China's one child policy where culture again makes girls less valuable than the boys.

Kayla wrote:there has been a lot said on this form about islams sexism

and in general it is very common to hear about how sexist islam is

but say anything bad about hinduism or buddhism and people get their underwear in a bunch

hinduism and buddhism are in so many peoples minds somehow enlightened where judeo christian religions are oppressive and intolerant etc

but the worst place in the world to be female is India - http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/asi ... ?hpt=hp_c1

Why shouldn't we consider culture beside religion when we talk about sexism . Six months ago women couldn't legally drive cars in Saudi Arabia , does Islam forbids so ? Absolutely not . Why would there be a problem with a woman driving a car ! It's a cultural trend . And if you look in the past , we had secular rule in Egypt , yet sex in public and sex before marriage general used to be illegal . That was a secular constitution or rule not a religious one . So I think Indians have high levels of sexual repression in their culture before their religions .

my intent was more to point out that while it is very common to point out sexism in islamic societies - pointing out far worse sexism in india is a lot less popular - because of the very common misconception that while judeo christian religious are repressive, hinduism and buddhism are extremely enlightened

So your basic argument is "Well we might be bad but they're as bad as us"?

The reason why you are hearing a lot of discussion about the Muslim and not the Hindu is that we haven't had many Hindus on here so far. Those that we have had mainly talked religious metaphysics rather than religious politics and they got a fairly tough time of it if I remember right. But most of the accusations appear to come from the Christian godbotherers on this site who ignore that if they were back in charge they'd be much the same.

Not sure who thinks any religion is fairly enlightened when it comes to the position of women.

Arising_uk wrote:So your basic argument is "Well we might be bad but they're as bad as us"?

no just pointing out some rather quirky perceptions of things

Kayla wrote:no just pointing out some rather quirky perceptions of things

I think it better said as "... just pointing out the rather quirky religious perceptions of things".

IMO, in comparision with Hinduism, Islam is the worst in term of sexism.

Let's put sexism on a scale of 1 to 100 (worst).

Hinduism is a collective word to rope in whatever is regarded as religious or spiritual within India, East of the Indus river. There may be hundreds or thousand of types of religious and spiritual practices in India.

The individual rating of sexism of all the religious and spiritual practices in India may range from 0 to 99. The critical point here is, the sexism of any degrees within these religious and spiritual practices are not carved in stone tablets and immutable.

Islam rating of sexism, imo, range from 60 to 99 depending in which school of Islam.
The minimal sexism of Islam is a lot worst than the minimal sexism in some of the Hindu spiritualities.

However, the difference with the sexism between Islam and Hinduism is, the holy texts of Islam that suppress women are immutable and carved in stones, and are linked to the fear of death and threaten with death if questioned. This is obvious if anyone were to stand on top of a roof somewhere in a village in Afghanistan Parkistan, or Saudi Arabia to condemn the holy verses in the Quran that suppress women. One is likely to have one head chopped off by a mob or jailed by the authority.
It is not likely for one to have one head chopped off, if one were to condemn the sexism of Hinduism.

As such, in an ultimate comparision with Hinduism, Islam is the worst in term of sexism.

Arising

Not sure who thinks any religion is fairly enlightened when it comes to the position of women.

There is your answer Kayla.

reasonvemotion wrote:Arising

Not sure who thinks any religion is fairly enlightened when it comes to the position of women.

There is your answer Kayla.

There are pagan religions who worship goddesses and often times give them better characteristics than the male gods. I haven't seen a pagan religion yet where the goddess existed merely to make coffee for the gods.

Veritas Aequitas wrote:This is obvious if anyone were to stand on top of a roof somewhere in a village in Afghanistan Parkistan, or Saudi Arabia to condemn the holy verses in the Quran that suppress women.

are these countries typical of islamic countries in general

the two countries with the highest population of muslims are india and indonesia

As such, in an ultimate comparision with Hinduism, Islam is the worst in term of sexism.

islam at least explicitly forbids female infanticide

nothing in religious scripture is carved in stone unless you are either an idiot fundamentalist or an idiot atheists who insists that literal interpretation is the only correct one - this is known as a straw man argument

ForgedinHell wrote: There are pagan religions who worship goddesses and often times give them better characteristics than the male gods. I haven't seen a pagan religion yet where the goddess existed merely to make coffee for the gods.

hindus goddesses do not make coffee for the gods which does not prevent hinduism of tending towards being rather sexist