In a postmodern world of progression and change, there is a tendency to forget that the history of hierarchies of oppression still have a place and reverberate, including the impacts of the long-standing global patriarchy that has governed society for centuries. This patriarchy that has been reinforced by generations of misogyny continues to permeate the progression of our growing world, but is changing as more women begin to strive ahead, and the world makes way for equality. However, the resistance to this change comes in the fears and hesitation of those who benefit from the continual abhorrence to empowerment and feminism, and while there are many factors that create roadblocks, religious fundamentalism is a particular facet that can help explain the obstacles for women. Religious and cultural traditions, across cultures, often prevent change, such as the advancements of women’s rights in society, in an attempt to preserve custom. At the same time, however, many feminists have used religion to justify and even empower their fight against the reigning patriarchy and have been successful. Religion can be both a tool to promote and a weapon against sexism in society and this contrast can be seen vehemently in global literature.
Religion is often the culmination of a history of shared beliefs, and across many cultures, one of these shared beliefs is the idea of purity and modesty, especially among women. In the Ngyuen Du’s, The Tale of Kieu, a traditional Vietnamese epic poem, which is centered around Kieu, a young vietnamese girl, who endures life in sex trafficking, arranged marriages, and as a servant in attempt to repent for the sins of a past life. Throughout the epic poem, Kieu’s self-worth and worth to society is heavily defined by her shifting levels of purity, despite the fact that Kieu has been forced into sex work. By the end of the poem, Kieu has been reunited with her first love, Kim Trong, but feels unworthy of marrying him because of her impurity, and instead, suggests that she prove her loyalty through unwavering friendship. “Though not a nun, I’ll live a religious life,” (3108, Du). Here, Kieu immediately assumes the guise of religiosity to purify herself and demonizes sex as an impurfying object. The idea behind religion as a purifier from sins is largely feminized and only invoked in the performative sense to control women. Kieu does not actually ever state that she is in full belief of Buddhism nor that she is committing to all of the requirements of nunnery. She is, however, choosing to live a life of abstinence in the vain of being a nun, because this is the only way that society and Kim himself will accept her request for a life without sex. Kieu is not invoking religion to be performative in malice, but rather is shining a light on the ways that sex and purity are social constructs and can be shifted and changed as such. Purity is a religious concept created around labeling human beings, especially women, and largely demonizes sexuality arbitrarily and The Tale of Kieu is an example of this in Vietnamese culture.
This way of redefining religion for a more meaningful and less performative sense is one that modern feminists around the globe have been exploring in recent decades, especially in modern Islamic states. In defining the concept of Islamic feminism, Zora Hesova, explores the principle surrounding the ways that modern feminism has researched and come to an understanding that religion itself is not the oppressor, but the systems with which religion is imposed.
“The discriminatory effects of Islamic laws may be traced back to a certain male-dominated tradition of interpretation, but also to the modern practice of secular and theocratic national states,” (p.20, Hesova).
Hesova comes to the understanding that Islamic feminism is radicalizing away from the strict standards imposed by nationalist governments and patriarcharial desires and for women to redefine the religion themselves. This deconstructs what might seem like an unwavering challenge for women to overcome into something that can be changed and interpreted in the sme ways that feminism has been across generations. Religion becomes something both meaningful and equal.
In Chikamastu Monzaemon’s Japanese play, “The Love Suicides at Awijima”, when the main characters, Koharu and Jihei, who are forbidden lovers, due to Jihei being married and Koharu being a sex worker, decide to commit a ritual double suicide to be together in the afterlife. In order for their sins to be forgiven, and in a desperate attempt to justify their actions, they both cut their hair to symbolically become nun and monk respectively, thus removing sin from their lives. “‘See, Koharu, while this hair remained uncut, I was O-San’s husband, known to men as Kamiya Jihei; now that it is cut I stand up a bonze-a priest who has put the world by and has nor wife, nor children nor treasure,” (P.36, Chikamatsu). Jihei, when calming down the fears of Koharu that it would be improper for them to die together as they are forbidden lovers, invokes a religious practice of a monk cutting his hair, to show that he is no longer attached to this world. While this appears, at first glance, to be just a desperate attempt to justify their actions, this invocation is two-fold. Jihei’s performativity by simply calling himself a monk by cutting his hair suggests that the religious practice itself is far more of a social construct based on belief than an unbreakable law. This then calls to question the morality of religion; Jihei has deeply betrayed O-San, not just by having an affair, but by leaving her children without a father. He is not a moral man and is overcome with the self-serving pleasure that Koharu gives him. He might cut his hair and call himself a “monk”, but he is not a morally-sound man, and the audience is certainly never convinced that he has redeemed himself enough to be worthy of the title. This both gives power back to the institution of religion, but works as a force to oppress Koharu. Her invocation of morality in their actions and attempts to deter Jihei’s desires proves that she had some hesitance, but could not argue with Jihei’s decisions with her social role as a woman, and the power imbalance of their relationship itself. Religion becomes a tool of the oppressor to keep Koharu from questioning Jihei while still being questioned as a concept itself.
Not only is Koharu oppressed in Chikamatsu’s work, but in many ways, Jihei’s wife, O-San, is also subject to the patriarchy. Her response to her husband having an affair and her desire to save Koharu’s life at the cost of her own marriage, in itself, defies the usual patriarchal trope of a jealous wife whose internalized misogyny causes her to want vengeance, but, in many ways, this response is because she has been conditioned to believe she has no agency of her own. This is proved to be true, when her father, Monzaemon, takes her away from her children and Jihei, not because she wants this, but because of Jihei’s actions. In his mind, he appears to be thinking about O-San’s reputation as a high-class woman. However, in actuality, he takes away her independence and free-will. “Dragged away by Gozaémon, O-san departed reluctantly and in tears, leaving the sorrow-stricken children,” (P.28, Chikamatsu). Gozaémon here is without asking or caring about O-San’s wishes is taking her away from her children which is inherently taking away O-San’s right as a woman to care for her children. In Susan Rakoczy’s essay on “Religion and Violence”, Rakoczy links the patriarchy itself to the inevitable violence and force that is established in a male-dominated society. “In the private sphere of the family, patriarchy exerts its violent power (whether or not it results in actual physical violence) through social control of the women – wives and daughters,” (p.31, Rakoczy). The sudden and forceful removal of O-San from her children is emotionally violent and was unnecessary beyond Monzaemon wanting to use O-San as a pawn in proving his righteousness to Jihei. Religion, known in Japanese culture as primarily reinforced tradition, allows for this continual cycle of violence and patriarchy to be passed from fathers to sons and therefore inflicted on generations of women, wives and daughters, like O-San and Koharu.
The use of religion for oppression is prevalent across all religions, including in India, where purdah, which is the seclusion of women and importance of modesty for women that is promoted in the Muslim community. While many Muslim spaces have adapted and progressed to giving women more freedom, this was not always the case. In Begum Rokeya’s “Ladyland ”, the story is a reimagining of a society where purdah had reversed gender roles to an extreme, meaning that men in India were secluded to their homes, and only called upon when absolutely necessary. While there are certainly embellishments to this short story such as the society having no crime, the larger message that the restrictions of purdah keep women from being able to live the vivacious and progressive lives that they are capable of carries through in this reimagining. When “Sister Sara”, a member of Ladyland, is expressing to the narrator, how much Ladyland differs from India, she asks the narrator, “Why do you allow yourselves to be shut up?’” (Rokeya, 1905). This question and the phrasing by Sister Sara suggests something sinister in India culture beyond the practice of purdah as a way of controlling women. The suggestion of internalized misogyny from years of oppression that keeps women from standing up for themselves and others presents a unique opportunity to empower women through breaking away from patriarchy and to reimagine a world where there are no limits to their goals, such as in Ladyland. Modern feminist advocates, like opera librettoist Valerie Letellier, who explains in her interview, her views on many of the restrictive practices of the Muslim community and the women within the community. “Women themselves perpetuate an almighty patriarchy to which they are accustomed and in which they find their place,” (Letellier, “Female Dissent and Isolation). When women have been oppressed for so long, there is a tendency to attempt to find contentment and peace within a designated role and this strengthens the patriarchy, and unintentionally, makes the system itself more difficult to overcome for other women. Religion itself in these instances is the reiteration and supposed justification for the renewal and the strengthening of these harmful ideations which is shown through the irony of Sultana’s Dream
Religion, for centuries, has operated on the assumption of unchanging social rules for survival of the religion itself. However, many of these social rules have been exclusionary and discriminatory, especially women, and slowly, through advocacy and progression, this limited understanding of religion is changing. Women have begun to use religion as a tool against the patriarchy and as a way to liberate themselves, using the very same institution that had once kept them oppressed.
Works Cited
Du, Nguyen. “By Phan Huy Mph – the English Version of Truyện Kiều.” The English Version of Truyện Kiều, 17 Nov. 2013, https://truyenkieuinenglish.wordpress.com/.
Hesová, Zora. “Secular, Islamic or Muslim Feminism? The Place of Religion in Women’s Perspectives on Equality in Islam.” Gender & Research / Gender a Výzkum, vol. 20, no. 2, July 2019, pp. 26–46. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.plymouth.edu/10.13060/25706578.2019.20.2.482.
Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat. “Sultana’s Dream.” Sultana’s Dream., Penguin, 2005, https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html.
Letellier, Valerie. “Female Dissent and Isolation in a Religious World – a Conversation with Valérie Letellier.” Shrine Magazine, Shrine Magazine, 18 Jan. 2021, https://www.shrinemagazine.com/blog/female-dissent-isolation-religious-world-valerie-letellier.
Monzaemon, Chikamatsu. The Love Suicides at Awijima, In Parentheses Publications, 2000, https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/amijima_miyamori.pdf.
Susan Rakoczy. “Religion and Violence: The Suffering of Women.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, no. 61, 2004, pp. 29–35, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4066596. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.
Sprockets and Springes 