Are religious women really women?

Are religious women really women?

The NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief hosted the Oxford University Lecturer in International Human Rights Law, Dr. Nazila Ghanea, this past February 27,

Dr Ghanea spoke on the topic, “Are Religious Women Really Women.?” to commemorate the Commission on the Status of Women.

The issue and conversation addressed the relationship between gender and religious-based identities. As it often does, the UN system “dissects” people into categories such as women, age, race, color, geography, and religion. Therefore, this forces a choice as to what group do I belong? It is not often the UN combines a person in all categories that they could belong to and some times a general category is at odds with another category, even if one individual could be in both. An example offered is a religious women who chooses her faith but the faith is seen as dis-empowering to women and not giving then full access to the  rights or opportunities of men.

Often a religious women is portrayed in the media as a victim. It is assumed they are repressed and that their position has not been freely chosen or that they are not happy/content with that role. It was offered, this is not always the case,

There are many identities, and variations of these identities, which make the understanding of what rights are being supported or denied:There are liberal and traditional understandings of women in religion and also the rights to have a religion  and the rights within a religion to be progressive.

A finishing statement after much conversation on the topic was that “No one should have to choose between their multiple identities.”

Erik Larson
NGO Representative
New York