Religious Culture And Women

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The word “Culture” has plenty of definitions. Some people think that culture is mixed with their blood but if we do a blood test we can not find out culture in blood. Every nation and religion has their own culture and it is connected with other notions. “As a methodological basis is used activity concept of the culture, supplemented axiological or value concept. The study found that the basis of the religious culture of the individual constitute the spirituality and religiosity, as a special form of spirituality. Spirituality is seen as a humanistic consciousness and value orientations of a person that are realized in its practical behavior. Spirituality thus suggests integrity of the person, the unity of humanistic consciousness and behavior. Religiosity is a form of spirituality, which establishes the humanistic ideals and values on the belief in the absolute, supernatural supreme being – God. The religious culture of the personality structure of the author identifies: 1. religious consciousness (a complex of religious ideas and emotional experiences), 2. religious value orientation (ideological system of values and behavioral attitudes) and 3. religious behavior (the system of the individual activities, due to the religious consciousness and religious value orientations)” (Shpalova). I will focus on how a culture can be obstacles for a certain gender. In this essay, I will analyze a case study named, “The Cultural Context of Women’s Productive Invisibility: A Case Study of a Pakistani village. The case study is based on a Pakistani Village which is called Rajpur, situated in Punjab. This case study is based on Rajpur’s common feminine activities and how these activities are important but invisible in a cultural context.

Abstract

In the village of Rajpur women are involved in so many household and productive works. Some sectors of works which really have an impact on the economy of a country, surprisingly women have almost no participation. One of the sectors is agriculture where women’s participation is lower and the village Rajpur is among those where women’s works and participation are always underestimated and ignored. Now the question is, why are they ignored? The simple answer is they do not earn. The earning source for the woman is always a man in Rajpur. In a Muslim society, the power and the status of a woman are relatively low compared with the man, Rajpur is not different. The writer, Taasawar Saeed Ibraz tried to find out some answers that why women’s activities are not much onerous as the man. He focused that, women have plenty of important activities including taking care of children, managing home and maintaining households and most important is taking care of kittens and cows. So this works is not much productive in a cultural way because women are taking care of cows, feeding them properly, washing them but man is selling the milk. The earning source is man and woman in Rajpur area of Pakistan is not dependent because they don’t earn. They indirectly or directly helping the man to earn money but in a cultural eye they are neglected and somehow their works are underestimated.

“In Pakistan, every woman has a different story. Many women are happy with their lives and more happy with Islamic sharia. I have no problem with those ladies. They also deserve respect and have the freedom to chose for them.

But the woman like me. Who criticize some orthodox 1400 years old Islamic sharia, life is not easy to be very honest. I want Allah to give me the equal rights in marriage. Allah should give me the right to “triple talaq” my husband anytime. If I feel my husband is boring. I’m angry. Or my husband is cheating on me I would say “talaq” “talaq” “talaq” And he is done. Yeah, I want equality from Allah. And this is not enough I would regret after talaq and would force him to go for “halal”. Now he should marry a random person and have physical relations with him then come to me again. This is just one example there are many things which should be fixed”. This a comment of an ordinary woman of Pakistan named Afifa Sarwar on a social media. She says my thoughts because every educated girl from Muslim majority countries may have the same questions. Afifa is educated and she is able to ask questions but women from a village of Pakistan may not have that right too. Questioning about these religious issues is unspoken. So being in a marriage is a great matter for an uneducated woman of Rajpur because even if she is not happy with his husband she can not express it. She is dependent, she bears a life like a parasite but she is happy because she doesn’t have options. In Muslim culture, women are born to be married even in a country like Bangladesh where women are more educated than men. The scenario of Pakistan is far worsened. I can relate with this case study because a woman of a village of Bangladesh belongs a quite same culture. Women should get married fast because she has to carry children. She has to take care of her husband and for Muslims getting married is “Faraz”. In Muslim culture, a girl and a boy are not equal. A ritual is mentioned in this case study where we found discrimination. Muslim families get more happiness when they have a newborn boy. Boys are more eligible to take the responsibilities of a family. Girls are born to go others house as a bride so they are not much substance as their brothers. So it is established that boys are privileged by families and Muslim cultural societies. Women get used to their natural works like giving birth, managing family, taking care of cows, cooking, sewing and so on. Women get closer to nature by these activities. They don’t complain because husbands decision is the decision. Every family is not the same but this is very common in Bangladesh also. Our grannies lived these lives and my mother and aunts followed them. Their contribution of household works or other productive works and endless schedules were not appreciated ever. Because of this cultural practice, some educated girls also have some thoughts on making a family. So if a work is worthy of appreciation by the society it is not possible for an ordinary village woman to complain to anyone.

Further analysis

Tassawar started his case study with a problem with less participation of women in agriculture who live in Pakistan. It is important fact that, half of the population of Pakistan is female so less participation has an impact on whole economy. Author also focused on female dependency. He raises two important questions that,

Are women dominantly independent on the income generated by men alone to run their households?
To what extent do they contribute to the sustenance of the family and in what productive domestic and agricultural spheres of activity do women participate?

The paper is based on extensive research in a Punjabi village to identify some answers to these questions. It helps to grow, firstly a perception of the nature of productive acts of women which are performed within the households and farms. The second concept is, It declines some of the culturally accepted notions regarding women, which, despite their participation in important and productive works harder for the sustenance of the family, build women and their work appear less honourous than men in the cultural perceptions and project them more focused as a caretaker and protector and bearer of children. Now I would like to present some writings of Ortner who tried to describe, how women are devalued by culture and how women are close to nature, According to Ortner (1974), “The three indicators of secondary cultural evaluations accorded women in a culture are: (1) elements of cultural ideology and informant’s statements that explicitly devalue women, treating them, their roles, their tasks, and products as less prestigious than men and their activities; (2) symbolic devices such as attribution of defilement; and (3) social structural arrangements that exclude women from participating in some realm in which the highest powers of the society are felt to reside.

These three types of data (which may or may not be related) are reflective of women’s secondary status in a given society” (Ortner). Ortner also wrote that “woman is being identified with – or, if you will, seems to be a symbol of – something that every culture devalues, something that every culture defines as being of a lower order of existence than itself. Now it seems that there is only one thing that would fit that description, and that is “nature” in the most generalized sense. Every culture, or, generically, “culture,” is engaged in the process of generating and sustaining systems of meaningful forms (symbols, artefacts, etc.) by means of which humanity transcends the givens of natural existence, bends them to its purposes, controls them in its interest. We may thus broadly equate culture with the notion of human consciousness, or with the products of human consciousness (i.e., systems of thought and technology), by means of which humanity attempts to assert control over nature” (Ortner). Tassawar added concerning about Ortner, “Firstly, women’s physiological, biological, and reproductive functions place them closer to nature in contrast to the physiology of men. Thus, because of women’s prolonged bodily involvement in the functions of childbirth, they are relatively constrained to take up the projects of culture; men being free of these physiological constraints are in a relatively advantageous position to take up these projects. They are, hence, considered as being closer to culture. Since culture has the ability to transform — to ‘socialise’ and ‘culturalise’ nature — it is therefore superior. This, according to Ortner, has led cultures to place a lower value on women. Secondly, women’s physiological functions, in turn, place them in social roles that are considered to be of a lower cultural order than the roles men take. (Ibraz)”We would like to focus on Muslim culture on this term. In this case study, the author said that in the village of Rajpur has its institution of purdah (purdah means veil or curtain which is mandatory for women in Muslim culture) and segregation of sexes according to Muslim culture. Where women are giving birth, growing up the children and maintaining the family in her own private domain. On the other hand, men are freer and they have their own public domain. So we can figure out that, according to this case study, Muslim women are natural but private and men are cultural and public.

The writer focused the participation part than. Wheat, pulses, oilseeds, maize these are major crops were grown in Rajpur. The author said that women don’t work in the field. They cook food for the labours. Sometimes in the ploughing season farmers need to hire other people to work in the field. But women help them just making foods for them. The writer presents a chart about the different stage of cultivations and the participation of men and women. In the ploughing of the major crops, women are absent. So ploughing is the work which is especially done by men. The other stages like sowing, weeding, packaging men and women are both seen. Kristie Drucza and Velentina Peveri analyze the role of the women and they assumed that ‘The role of Pakistani women in producing wheat and the way wheat products are used, valued and shared by them is grossly under-researched. The initial search around the basic keywords ‘rural women’, ‘agriculture’, and ‘wheat’ did not produce any significant outcome, identifying not so much a paucity of current published literature pertaining to gender in wheat producing regions, but rather a more fundamental and widespread inconsistency about the connection between women and grain crops.

Moreover, the crop sector of the small farm economy remains to a certain degree unexplored by economists and anthropologist alike. In most of Pakistan, grain crops are strongly identified with men; the plough, for example, is such a potent male symbol that women may not even touch it. Even if women weed crops, this role fits within the livestock sector as the weeds are fed to animal’ (Kristie Drucza). Raising livestock what women do is the same as raising crops what especially men do. Farmers need to assure that their survival in the case of risks coordinated with development, a need that customizes the household into a commercial sector that is legible t that state and takes risks, and a sector which is not legible to the state but plays an important role in the household’s food security. The gender discrimination of labour has some reasons and one of them is based on Purdah and it is how male dominance and female subordination manifest. On one hand, there is a clear division of labour – e.g., provision of care to newborns and infants is almost entirely a female responsibility within the household, on the other hand, there is a grey area around farming. A range of agricultural tasks must be undertaken by females. These tasks need to be identified further. Here we can add a quotation from Holy Quran, ‘And stay in your houses, and do not display yourselves like that of the times of ignorance, and perform As-Salat (IqamatasSalat), and give Zakat and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah wishes only to remove ArRijs (evil deeds and sins, etc.) from you, O members of the family (of the Prophet SAW), and to purify you with a thorough purification’ (The Holy Quran).(al Ahzaab 33:33) The Prophet said: “Woman is ‘awrah, and if she goes out, the Shaytaan raises his hopes (of misguiding her). She is never closer to Allaah than when she stays in her house.” Narrated by Ibn Hibbaan and Ibn Khuzaymah; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Shaheehah, no. 2688.

And he also said about a woman’s prayer in the mosque: “Their houses are better for them.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (567) and classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood. One Islamic scholar says that “The husband is required to provide his wife with food, clothes, a place to live and medical treatment according to his environment, conditions and income. The wealthy have their own measure, whereas the poor have theirs. The Prophet (greetings and peace be upon him) said stating the rights of women, ‘You are obliged to provide them with food and clothes honourably’. [ Transmitted by Abu Dawud (1905); Ibn Majah (3074); Al-Doramy in Kitab Al-Mannish p.440 on the authority of Jabber; Ahmad 5/73 on the authority of Abu Gara Al-Raqashi’s uncle.] Honourably here means what is conventional according to people of faith and honour, without extravagance or meanness. The Almighty said: ‘Let the rich man spend according to his means, and the man whose resources are restricted, let him spend according to what Allah has given him. Allah puts no burden on any person beyond what He has given him’ (The Holy Quran). [Surah At-Talaq 65:7] ” (Al-Qaradawi). So if a girl is getting married, it means that she doesn’t need to earn by Islamic social and religious culture. And in return of the mentioned rights women have to return something. She has to obey her husband and she has to protect her husband’s money. Even she doesn’t have any right to spend that money given by her husband without his permission.

The author did fieldwork about the presence of women outside of the home in daytime and night time. Where some interesting factor has been found. Women are found in ponds and fields but in the night time, they are absent. They only exist in the home. The author wrote that home is the best place where the vulnerabilities of women are protected. Home is also a symbol of feminity. She is a mother, good cook, homemaker so home is her personal space. Tassawar clarified that ‘women in the cultural eyes are seen as incapable of dealing with the outside world — the world which, according to men, requires intellect and reasoning (aql and samaj) which means intelligence and understanding the two qualities in which women are thought to be comparatively lacking. They are, hence, kept away from the public world ‘for their own good’. Men, on the other hand, in their traditional, cultural images as mijazi khuda (worldly, imaginary gods) and maliks (masters), guardians, protectors and providers, and as those possessing greater aql are allowed not only to dominate women but also other structures of power outside the home. (Ibraz)’ Tassawar also focused on the importance of girl and boy children in a family. He put an example that how girl children are underestimated. He said about the birth celebration in Muslim religious culture which is called ‘aqiqa’. In this ritual, two rams were sacrificed by the family for a boy and for girls the number of sacrifice rams is one. Even families have that concept of ‘aapna and paraya“ which means ‘owns and others’. A boy is considered as a blessing and a girl is considered as a mouth of feeding. So it can be said that boys are positive for a family and somehow girls are negative in Muslim society. “In pre-Islamic times, there were often inter-tribal blood feuds, which demanded male members to defend their tribes.

Hence men were in much greater demand than women. In addition, in the tribal conﬂict, the enemy always aimed at capturing women and taking them as prisoners so that they could collect heavy ransoms. Failing to do so, they would keep them as slaves. In both cases, women were considered a liability to their own tribes. For if they paid the ransom, they would lose money, if not, then the chastity of their women as well as their honour were at stake. ‘The Arabs did not welcome the birth of a baby girl, and this was so because of the nature of their society. Wars and invasions never ceased and taking revenge never stopped. All these things depended on the male, but a woman was unable to do any of these tasks, in addition to it, she was the desired loot for (the) service (of the enemy) in the eyes of the enemy, or she was for his entertainment’. For these reasons, the Arabs believed that their own daughters constituted a heavy burden on them and the easiest way to get rid of them was to kill them immediately after they were born“ (Jawad).

Conclusion

The Muslim cultural society carries the tradition of their ancestors. However, different places have different types of Muslim culture but the attitude towards women is disrespectful. Sometimes, It is less disrespectful, sometimes it is much disrespectful. It also depends how the women society takes it.

References

Al-Qaradawi, Sh. Yusuf. „The status of women in Islam.“ Islamic Articles (1997).
Ibraz, Tassawar Saeed. „The Cultural Context of Women’s Productive Invisibility.“ The Pakistan Development Review (1993): 101-125.
Jawad, Haifaa A. The Rights of Women in Islam . Newyork: St. Martin’s press, Inc, 1998.
Kristie Drucza, Velentina Peveri. „Literature on gendered agriculture in Pakistan: Neglect of women’s contributions.“ Women’s Studies International Forum (2018): 180-189.
Ortner, Sherry B. „ Is female to male as nature is to culture? .“ Woman, culture, and society (1974): 68-87.
Shpalova, lena Vladimirovna. „RELIGIOUS CULTURE OF PERSON.“ Reserch Gate (2017).
The Holy Quran. Mecca, ‎609–632.
The Holy Quran. Mecca, 609-632.

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Religious Culture And Women

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