Legislation, Divinity and Sexism

So much controversy surrounding the now on-hold Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. Is this legislation a good thing? Will it achieve the intended results? Time will tell.

On a positive note, look at all the steps taken over time towards gender equality all over the world. At the work place, in sports, in the entertainment industry, in the armed forces, just to name a few areas. Women got the right to vote. To stand for elections. It’s been slow but at least there’s been some progress.

Contrast that with the way most religions have treated (and often continue to treat) women. Locked them behind burqas. Condemned widows to the funeral pyre of their dead husbands. Barred them from becoming part of the clergy. Prohibited them from even reading scriptures. Banned them from certain places of worship. Left them at the mercy of triple talaq. Burnt them at the stake. Not treated a woman’s testimony as equal to a man’s. No wonder one religion even has a prayer that thanks God for “not making me a woman”!

Notice the weird thing here? Divine directives take longer (sometimes an eternity) than legislation of the mere mortals’ to not be sexist! Remember that old saying, “To err is human, to forgive divine”? Notice that it doesn’t say anything about admitting a mistake, about correcting a wrong: maybe that is the real problem…

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