Panel raises questions on women in religion

Five female students shared their different experiences of religion and gender at the Interfaith Panel on Women and Religion on March 3 in Hodson Hall. The event was held in celebration of Women’s History Month and Open Hands Open Hearts — Religious Diversity Awareness Week.

The panel was moderated by Director of Gender Equity Jeannine Heynes, who first asked whether any dogma in the panelists’ religion dictated what the ideal woman should be and how they would personally respond to those expectations.

Madison Dutson, the representative from The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, also known as Mormonism, explained how in her faith, a woman is expected to be motherly and kind.

“The main form that we believe all people should strive to do is follow the example of Christ, who gave us overarching attributes such as charity, love and faith, that we believe all individuals, both men and women, should strive to follow. And mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children,” she said. “Those ideals have really shaped the value I have for motherhood and have given me a real sense of the sacred nature of life and of the importance of families.”

“I think a lot of the rhetoric that Islam gets, especially towards women, is this idea of oppression.” —Ayesha Shibli, junior

Arshdeep Kaur, the representative for the Sikh faith at the event, explained that women and men are meant to be equals in Sikhism and that work still has to be done in the Sikh community to move past sexist attitudes.

“I also think that within the Sikh community currently, there is a certain element of patriarchy, perhaps, and sexism, in which those ideals have not been represented correctly,” she said. “So I personally responded a lot to that by trying to find Sikh women throughout history and presently who could be role models.”

The panel was then asked if there were any misconceptions about women in their religion, particularly any ideas about dress and appearance.

Ayesha Shibli, a representative for the Muslim faith, talked about the preconceived idea that hijabs are oppressive to women. She added that Islam now allows women to have more freedom than in the past.

“I think a lot of the rhetoric that Islam gets, especially towards women, is this idea of oppression, that ‘Oh, these women are oppressed, they’re covered in layers and layers of clothing, let me save them.’ But we don’t necessarily need saving,” she said.

Danielle Kramer, a representative for the Jewish faith, discussed how notion of modesty in dress has affected the perception of the Jewish community.

“[A] big misconception within the Jewish community is that the way you dress is a barometer for how religious you are,” she said. “I would walk down the street in pants and people would assume that I’m not so religious. I think that’s a big issue, and I think it’s important that would start more looking at people’s actions and not just how they dress. People really emphasize this modesty for women in a physical sense, when modesty is also a state of mind.”

Afterward, the panel was asked how their faith informs their ideas and perceptions of feminism.

Dikachi Osaji, a Catholic from Nigeria, said the idea that men and women are equals in religion.

“In our culture, I’m Nigerian, girls across different tribes, are not seen as important and it unfortunately is still a thing today. Having three girls... my father is always asked, ‘Well, you have three girls, how does that make you feel? You should want a son.’ And he’s like, ‘No I’m blessed amongst women,’” Osaji said. “My father would always say ‘No, my women, my girls are just as powerful, just as smart or just as strong or just as religious as your boys.’ Both my parents made sure that we understood that we were important. We’re important in God’s eyes. We’re important in their eyes. We’re important in our society’s eyes, no matter what anyone told us.”

Muhammad Hudhud, a junior, attended this event because he is involved with the religious community on campus and wanted to learn about other faiths.

“It seemed like a really interesting event. I think on campus not enough of these events happen, so this is nice to see. As well as supporting my friends, some of them are on the panel today. I’m Muslim, first of all, and while I do know a lot of the tenets, the requirements for men and women, I’m not really familiar with those of other faiths.”

Hammaad Shah, a junior, enjoyed the panel and the stories which women of different faiths shared.

“I attended a similar event last year, and I really enjoyed hearing about the specific stories that different people had to talk about — the religious traditions or cultural traditions, women who were important — and that was a pretty unique experience for me, to be exposed to that kind of culture,” he said.