Religion and Equality

Razib at Gene Expression talks about a recent episode where women were to be banned from praying in a Mecca Shrine.

a conversation that my aunt once had with my uncle, she joked offhand asking why men should always pray before women. My uncle, a religious man, explained that if women prayed before men in the hall then when they bent over and prostrated themselves they would expose themselves to men. That would be improper. My aunt responded, "Ah, but it's fine if we see your backsides all the time?" My uncle was taken aback that he didn't respond. On another occassion my mother explained to some friends (non-Muslim) that purdah, the veiled and covered state you sometimes see Muslim women in (i.e., "black moving objects") is virtuous, because "only their husbands can see their beauty, it is for no one else." Her friends laughed and responded, "Ah, but women can always look through the veil to see the men!" This is a common joke.

As he points out at the end of the post, the problem is more fundamental than just a offhanded ban. The problem is entrenched perceptions based on inequality fabulously aided by religion.

Religion has tried its hands at equality through all sorts of moral and ethical codifications. Saying it has failed miserably in its undertaking is an understatement. If the past and present is anything to go by, religion has often led to mayhem and massacre whenever different cultures came into contact with each other. It is almost impossible to be fair and balanced for a religious person because religion requires dogma and dogma is the first step towards the hell of unreason. The more pious one is the more at risk one's faculty for reasoning is.

The issues are more grave than what I can capture in this blog post (and I doubt if I am capable of it anyway). The quandary one can end up in when rethinking personal moral and ethical standing without a religious basis is hard on our primate brains. But, it would be lame not to attempt it. We owe it to ourselves to find out the possibility of living a life that's more reasonable than bending over for idiots and idols and exposing private bodyparts.