Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/religion/page/3/)
The Islamization of society in Iran may have been designed to resurrect the image of the time-honored Muslim woman. But the single-sex schooling it brought about shows signs of enormous success and may have had an opposite and hugely empowering effect.
They never questioned not having children, until his wife discovered she had primary ovarian insufficiency, says Khizer Husain in this excerpt from the anthology “Salaam Love.” The diagnosis led to an exploration of religiously viable alternatives.
“Hijab is a part of my Muslim-American identity,” said one woman featured in this video interviewed on World Hijab Day on Feb. 1. “For me it is a display of my love for God. It is a form of worship.”
One of the Quran’s most controversial verses, Ranya Tabari Idliby was horrified to discover, was being taught to her American Muslim son. In this excerpt from “Burqas, Baseball and Apple Pie,” she interprets the verse as allegory, not instruction.
A year ago many nuns were under Vatican censure for emphasizing social justice and not doing more to oppose abortion and homosexuality. Today, they say Pope Francis is steering a better course and some express hope he will move the Church toward female ordination.
The Judean desert was full of perils and hardship for a 9-month pregnant Jewish woman struggling to reach Bethlehem for the Roman census. We follow that same female trek of endurance in our watch over Syrian refugees in Jordan, U.S. women in maternity wards.
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Calls from the bus station can come at 2 a.m. for two Christian centers run by women, one in Texas, the other in Tennessee. The job is to keep the lights on for female ex-cons with nowhere else to go.
In two recent gallery shows in New York female artists of Indian heritage emphasized the universal appeal and power of female Hindu deities. In India, taking such artistic license can stir controversy over crossing a religious line.
The adoption of the veil among this group in Kenya’s refugee communities is a new thing, says Peri M. Klemm in this excerpt from “Veiling in Africa.” While there are many reasons for this push, Islam isn’t a motivation for covering up.
The idea of any Indian women–much less “inauspicious” widows–officiating as priests was unthinkable till two decades ago. Now that two widows have done just that it might help us confront a continuum of sex bias.