Friday, April 11, 2014

Religion Prejudice

Today I'll be writing on one of the most controversial but hushed topic in our society. Religion.
  • : an organized system of beliefs,ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods.
Hindu, Muslim, Christianity, Sikhs, Jews and so on are all the different religions all around the world. We may praise the almighty god with all the pre-historic rituals and all that jazz, but does anyone have the authority to question their customs? Like a woman can never be a Rabbi or a priest in a baptized church. Muslims women are to be behind a veil or 'burka' when in public, some middle eastern counties don't allow women to drive cars. They don't even allow their woman to pray in mosques. We as Hindus frown upon the household where a women is the bread maker in the house or remarriage of a widow, the dowry system, marrying  an innocent 13 year old off to some 30 or sometimes even a 60 year old man. When I open the newspaper, all I see is this heart breaking stories of child marriage, suicide  attempts of women due to not being able to pay dowry, or due to the constant henpecking from the in-laws. 

But all in all- we see, we might feel sad but move on as this is all under 'religious customs.' Not allowing girls near worship places when their on their monthly cycle- I have friends who are not allowed to go out of the house during those 5-6 days. I'm sorry, but is no one aware that this happens to every female and its not something we asked for? Our god made us this way. We think of child birth as something pure and magical but when it comes to the periods that illusion is demystifies? And then we sit and wonder as to how this inequality between a man and woman has started. It's always the girls fault. Whether it's blamed on Eve for biting the sinful apple or on us girls wearing short clothes is a mating call for males to rape. It's always us. 

Some religions are of the belief that homosexuality is an unnatural disease and we must immediately shun out such people who are 'ill'. Or in some tribal beliefs when children start teething, they believe that the child is possessed  by the devil and go to these con artists who sit under the title of 'gurus' with their yellow forehead and saffron clothes, with their multiple necklaces just waiting to pounce  on poor villagers for a living. If a girl is not mentally stable they send her off to some remote temples where she's made to pretend to be some devil possessed sorcerer and people sit around her chanting spells to ward off her 'evil spirit'. You're probably thinking- Are you kidding me? I wish I were, but it's the bitter truth. Have you seen any female pundits? Or god being addressed as 'her'. Though we have many female deities, they're always put in a smaller temple or less grander than their supposing 'husbands' . That's why maybe I like Durga Mata so much. Call it a feminists guilty pleasure. But she's the only goodness know for being a superwoman, for not depending on any man.  
Whether it's Hitlers genocides or discrimination of females in worship place as long as the discrimination is under the title of 'religious believes' we all just drop the idea of voices our thought or fighting for our right and start chanting gods name in fear of being cursed by him. The hypocrisy of the government and the juvenile customs of our many religious beliefs have suppressed us woman form any kind of power. Not to mention our religious believes of not talking open about 'sex education'. In India we student do not receive sex education talks, but in turn are supposed to pride the fact that we worship many goddess and pray to them to bless us.  I mean the whole country dedicates temples and 'Ashtami' days for national holiday to worship our girls who are our 'devi' or goddesses. While any other day it's okay to rape a girl between the ages of 9 months old to a 90 year old or molest a baby girl in open day light? Studies have shown that sex education is one of the ways to drastically reduce rape cases. The evident carelessness and egoistic male chauvinism in this country is appalling but if it's under the tag line of religion- we just let go and take whatever is in our way.  

I'm not an atheist. I believe in god, I pray, I visit temples, churches, gurudwaras etc.  But I like to believe that god, this enchanting mystical form we pray and devote our faith hasn't brought me into this world to see that women are inferior to men, or girls can be discriminated whether openly or in religion, and we are just supposed to be okay with it. No, he has brought me to see that equality is my birthright and nobody gets to put me down- not religion, not any government or cult. Not even he himself. 
Discrimination is showing prejudice in any form- political, social or even religious. Why can't we tax this biased system which is hiding under the protection of god? Which thinks it can get always with it cause we fear god? Try being god loving, not god fearing people. Then maybe we will someday get to see an equality which we can only dream of right now. Think about it. 


PS- I meant to hurt no religion, customs, cult or any beliefs. It's not a hate blog, nor an atheist one. It's only my beliefs cause everyone is entitled to them, and this๐Ÿ‘† is mine. Sorry not sorry if it hurts any sentiments or feeling, it's not intentional and all of this is purely frictional and for amateur blogging. 
Till next time my readers. ๐Ÿ™