Why are women discriminated against in places of worship?

Traditionally, fundamentalism has often held that women are not permitted to teach men, or to hold offices of authority over men in the church. Those Christian leaders who believe that kind of nonsense look to the Christian Bible for their justification in arriving that that conclusion. They quote from I Timothy. 2:12 which states, “I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”

When you think about it, that conclusion doesn’t apply in our modern era and hasn’t applied in this world of ours for many centuries. Queen Elizabeth the First and Catherine the Great are two examples of women being rulers of nations in earlier centuries and Margaret Thatcher of the UK, Indira Gandhi of India, Cory Aquino of the Philippines,Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan are just four examples of women who led their countries in this modern age. And the ironies of all ironies is that Catholics pray to Mary who definately was a woman.

I find it an odd contradiction that these fundamentalists actually believe that women who are capable of exercising authority over the people of their nations are not capable of exercising authority within their church.

For example, Christian women are treated differently than men. Catholic women cannot be ordained as deacons or priests. Only priests can say mass.The Catholic Church has declared discussion on ordination of women a closed issue.

That hasn’t stopped some Catholic women from seeking ordination unofficially. Marie Bouclin, 66, a Sudbury translator, was "ordained" by a group known as Roman Catholic Women priests in a service held at the West Hill United Church in Scarborough. Needless to say, the Catholic hierarchy haven’t sanctioned the ordination and probably Marie will be considered a heretic by the Church. Many women of the Catholic faith are quite willing to be trained in religious institutions to that they can provide the sacraments, to celebrate mass, baptisms and marriage.

If the Church wasn’t so stubborn, it would recognize that fully trained women could fill the shortage of male priests. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church still hasn’t quite grasped the full immensity of the problem facing it; few men want to be priests anymore. Their churches are slowly closing down for want of celibate male priests.

Some other Christian churches are of the same mind. however there more of them are accepting women to be leaders in their churches but ask yourself, --- have you ever seen a bishop or archbishop in the Anglican or Episcopal Church?

This anomaly for example also applies in Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh with respect to their mosques.

For example, a woman entering a mosque must enter through a side door, like a servant whereas the men enter the mosque from the front entrance. That happened recently in Ottawa, Ontario when Alia Hogben attended a funeral of a close friend. She and her other women friends had to enter the mosque through a side door that was right next to the garbage bin.

"It's anathema to me and against the teachings of my religion," says Hogben, who heads the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. “Muslim women can pray at home so the purpose of going to the mosque is to pray in community. I think it's a way of making women feel not as equal as men. It's symbolic of what's wrong – again, in the house of God, women are still put to the side."

I am in total agreement with her feelings in this matter. To treat Muslim women in this matter is insulting to their gender and demeaning to them as human beings. Seating for women in mosques – often inferior spaces in basements or crowded side rooms – is a continuing problem women in Islamic countries and in Canada are faced with all the time.

It certainly contravenes the equality rights enshrined in our Charter of Rights but unfortunately, the courts can’t dictate to the religious leaders as to who sits where in their holy places or in what entrance they enter their place of worship. Religious leaders will say that since women can freely go to a place of worship of their own choosing, knowing the terms of membership, their equality rights are not being undermined. If they're unhappy with their lot in a particular holy place, they can find a more progressive place to worship. Unfortunately, that undermines that old manta; ‘Those who worship together, stay together.’

Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, for one, has had enough. "I'm angered by the fact that Muslim women themselves don't recognize the oppression they suffer. Because of the argument, `Oh, there's no discrimination,' they constantly justify inequity."

But some argue just the opposite – the religious practices and beliefs that have endured for millennia should not be adapted to changes in society. "A mature person attempts to conform herself to the precepts of her faith, not the other way around," says Catholic writer Kathy Shaidle, who dismisses what she calls a "campaign to remake God in their own image."

For decades, Malaysia has been regarded as a tolerant Muslim nation that treats its Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities fairly. But its image as a moderate, multicultural democracy was dealt a blow last week when the nation's highest court refused to recognize the conversion of a Muslim-born woman to Christianity.

In a deplorable 2 to 1 vote, split on religious lines, the Federal Court decreed that Lina Joy, who was baptized a Roman Catholic in 1998, must get an Islamic sharia court to certify she has renounced Islam before she can legally be deemed a convert and the word "Islam" be removed from her identity card. Until then, she cannot marry her Catholic fiancé because in Malaysia Muslims can only wed within the faith. She has been shunned, has lost her job and may have to leave Malaysia.

"She cannot at her own whim simply enter or leave her religion," says Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Abdul Halim. "She must follow rules." Yet the rule is a Catch-22 in that a Muslim-turned-Christian must appeal to an Islamic court more likely to punish her than to approve apostasy.

Women of the Hebrew faith are discriminated against also. Janice Stein knows first-hand how women can literally be overlooked in synagogues. She was not counted among the 10 required for prayer when she went twice daily for nearly a year to say prayers for the dead. She was there to honour her deceased mother

As I see it, this kind of religious discrimination in Christian, Muslim and Jewish places of worship is still intractably embedded.

There are signs of creative solutions coming to the fore however. In the Noor Cultural Centre in Toronto women and men pray side by side. During Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, men and women pray side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder.

It’s ironic when you think of it. If God or Allah was a woman, then what would the role or women be in churches, mosques and synagogues now?