Religions and the barbarism of men towards women

By Sukhdave Singh | Opinion |

My heart goes out to the women of Iran who are being slaughtered by repressive and regressive men for simply wanting to dress the way they wish, for wanting freedoms that men have enjoyed for the longest of times. It is incomprehensible that in this day and age, such barbarism exists among us.

Men use the pretext of religion to exert their will over women so much so that if we listen to their interpretations of religion, it would seem that religions are created by men for men. In the eyes of these barbaric men, women are the source of all evil when history shows that the worst atrocities and acts of violence were perpetuated by men. Domestic violence is mostly by men. Rapes and other acts of sexual aggression are done by men. Incest is mostly by men. Murders and acts of violence on other living things are done mostly by men. Yet, in the eyes of these barbaric men, women need to hidden away so that men are not tempted into evil. 

I do not subscribe to these interpretations. Even if we give allowance for the day and age in which most major religions today were conceived, and many clearly speak from the perspective of men of that day and age, surely, there must be something in these religious texts that values the lives and rights of women? After all, where would humanity be today without women? Extinct, I think.

Here is one such quote from Sikhism:

We are born of women,
we are conceived in the womb of women,
we are engaged and married to women.
We make friendship with women
and the lineage continued because of women.
When one woman dies,
we take another one,
we are bound with the world through women.
We grow up stronger and wiser having drunk milk from the breast of women.
Why should we talk ill of her,
who gives birth to Kings?
The woman is born from woman;
there is none without her.
– Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Let me hear from others here about what positive support your religion gives women so that the lies of these barbaric men can be exposed. Conversely, it would be a sad day for religions if we have difficulty in finding religious text that reaffirms the rights of women.

On 13 September 2022, Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s so-called “morality” police. Eyewitnesses reported seeing her being violently beaten in a police van. Within hours, she was taken to hospital in a coma, and three days later the 22-year-old died. The “morality” police routinely subject women and girls to arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment for not complying with Iran’s abusive, degrading and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws. – Amnesty International

Sukhdave Singh is a former deputy governor of Central Bank of Malaysia and a former independent director of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The article was published by Sukhdave on his LinkedIn page (link) and is reproduced here with his permission.

* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.

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