World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 196

In reading resistance from the site of women's bodies, Rajan examines the location of the experiences of 'real and imagined women.' The examination of the discourses on rape, sati, pain death, leadership and the politics of representation has as much importance of the reading of victimization. The complexity of the fabric of experience is given space rather that straight dichotomies of understanding worn out tropes of existence to map a space of the post colonial female subjects. Hybridity of matter (history, issues, themes) and method (theory, language) is a function of the postcolonial intellectual subject. In a similar vein, Fatima Mernissi's contextualizes the relationship of women in Islam to the culture of Islam with respect to the role of bodies, adornment, sexuality from behind the veil. The appropriateness of critique not informed of perspectives from within traditions has been much in the literature on third world women. It is to return to an examination of the role and place of spirituality given the postmodern deconstruction of binary compositions that other sorts of spaces open for analysis. The hybrid text of spirituality, given place, location, and culture shapes the given expression of women's spirituality in contrast to the doctrinal laws formed by institutional orthodoxy. A further complexity is entertained if one views the sects within Islam. For instance the women in the Sufi traditions were inspiring as poets, oracles, fearless in the travels and ecstatic in the pronouncement of Allah's name. The search for the beloved in the form of Allah was permissible and indeed respected. This is in contrast to the notion of confined spaces popularized as the only version of women worshipping in Islam.
Conclusion:
The Women's Conference in Beijing (1995) highlighted the diverse paths taken as women continue to define and redefine themselves in the 21st century. Religion plays a significant role in both oppressing and liberating women. Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have all been valorized and demonized in regard to empowerment and disempowerment of women's voices. The persistence of cultural difference in our increasing globalized world requires and demands deeper intersubjective encounters. Through understanding, empathy will grow.. With empathy, the prospects for peace between peoples and genders will prosper.
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