Women and Religion: Love Jihad
School of Excellence in Law TNDALU, Chennai, India
Volume II – Issue II, 2020
In general perspective, men are always overriding in a society as interpreters, recipients and transmitters of divine messages, while women have always remained as passive practitioners and silent receivers of religious teachings. They are always been kept in a second-class status in the attribute of religion. Women are subjected to religious and political impacts and bear the negative costs of cultural attitudes. However, it is undeniable that women in recent times are trying to walk out the Male-dominant barricades and traditions of centuries. Feminist scholars all over the world are now challenging against the patriarchal Christian, Islam and Judaism. The social media also plays a major role and allows the women to express their intensions. But these thoughts of change in the Feminine mind is not actually universal. The approach of women suppression is evident till date in most of the circumstances. The Roman Catholic Doctrine which campaigns for the women ordination actually mandates in all-male priesthood as one of the reason that the twelve apostles of Jesus were men. The recent Bishops Vatican meeting for the extension of women’s role in the Church affairs contained 7 nuns among the 267 male monks and the nuns were not even given the right to vote in the final document. Saudi Arabia being a male-dominant country restrains the women from travelling or obtaining passport without the permission of the male guardian and also granted the women to drive only on last year. The women were also given a separate isolated place with separate entry and exit pathways in Mosques. The Buddhist nuns are used as glorified temple housekeepers until 2003 when they won the rights to serve as equivalent to male monks. Even the Sabarimala temple before the last year judgement was barring the women to enter, considering the menstruating women to be impure.
This paper specifically explains the matter of “Love Jihad” which is a concept that the Hindu girls are targeted by the Muslim men and were converted to Islam by feigning love. In 2009, after alleged conversions in Kerala and Karnataka, the matter came into national attention. The scam resulting in vast conversion of young girls and raised the number of terrorism followers to increase comparatively higher than last centuries. The paper deals with a detailed outcome of this issue and the continuous denial of the Muslim organisations about the Love Jihad and the Hadiya’s case and Kayum’s case. Unmindful of several women empowerment in religious matters, a portion of society still gazes women as a weaker object to be used and alleged in the name of culture, religion and tradition.
Keywords: Passive practitioners, second-class status, Roman Catholic Doctrine, Sabarimala temple, Love Jihad, Kayum case, Hadiya case.