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I added this picture of “Under the Udala Trees” because it was the biggest element in the class that made me want to learn more about the relationship between feminism and religion. Reading the book and seeing how negatively her mom used the bible to justify her oppressive view displayed how terrible and heartbreaking some religions can be. However, when watching some TED Talks that demonstrate how religion can be an integral part of feminism it can make it hard to see if religion is good or bad for feminists. The ideas that were shown in this book are a main part of why I picked feminism and religion as my theme for this project. 

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Reflection

For my commonplace book project, I decided to focus on the theme of religion and feminism. The relationship between religion and feminism came up multiple times throughout this class in the many different readings and TED Talks. I never grew up religious, my mom claims to be Protestant, but we have never been to church, and my dad and I are atheist. This also means I have never had a good understanding of any religion. However, two of my closest friends growing up were both raised in extremely religious households, one of which was Catholic and the other one was Mormon. I would sometimes go to church with them and seeing the ways they believed and practiced really helped shape my view of religion. I was always pretty liberal and feminist growing up and seeing them being told what to wear and how to be a good woman, only by being mothers or caregivers, made me believe that one could not be religious and feminist, that these were contradictory beliefs. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with being a mother or caregiver but that being the only option for women always seemed unacceptable to me. This always led me to think that one could not be a good feminist and believe in a religion that has such a long track record of being oppressive. However, this class has changed my mind on this topic, which is why I picked my theme for this project to be the relationship between feminism and religion.

I started my blog with a post about the novel “Under the Udala Trees” by Chinelo Okparanta because it is what sparked my initial interest in this theme. When I wrote my discussion post for “Under the Udala Trees” I analyzed how religion is used negatively by her mother and how harmful religion can be when it is used to justify oppression. However, when I wrote my analysis, I had only read about halfway through the book. This was when Ijeoma’s mother was forcing her to go through bible lessons that she was using to prove that homosexuality is an abomination. To me, at this point in the novel, Ijeoma’s mom was basically proving everything I had already thought about how harmful religion is to fighting inequalities. Therefore, in my analysis I focused on the negatives of religion and how much better their lives could have been without religion altogether. After writing the analysis I finished the book and saw how her mom eventually did accept her for who she is and who god made her to be; showing that religion may be used negatively, but it can also be used positively and bring people together. The novel, in a way, mirrors my understanding about religion and feminism throughout this class. Starting with me believing that religion is bad and used to hurt people, like Ijeom’s mom used it. Then slowly realizing how it can also be helpful and be used to change people's minds on important issues like Ijeom’s mom finally accepting her.

The next two posts in my blog are both articles, “Faith and Feminism: Contradictory or Coexist?” by Ross Brittain and “Reconciling Faith with Feminism” by Beth Potier. I found that both of these articles helped me understand more about being religious and feminist. Starting with the first article, “Faith and Feminism: Contradictory or Coexist?” This article was about a panel of speakers that talked about each of their own journeys with their relationships between faith and feminism. What I liked most about this article is that it had people of all different faiths talk about their struggles with finding their place in religion and feminism. Another thing that I liked about this article is that it talked about the positives and the negatives of being religious and feminist. The next article, “Reconciling Faith with Feminism” discussed how religious feminists have not been completely accepted by neither their religion nor by feminism and how this can affect their relationship with both. Both of these articles give examples of personal experiences people of different religions have had when trying to navigate through being a religious feminist. These articles really helped grow my understanding of how feminists can believe and practice religion and still be feminists.

The next two posts I have in my blog are “The New Feminist Revolution in Religion” which is a TED Talk by Gina Messina-Dysert, and the article “Faith and Feminism” by Amanda Benckhuysen. I put these two together because one focuses more on Catholicism and the other Christianity, they also both talk about how important social media is to feminism. The TED Talk “The New Feminist Revolution in Religion” is my favorite post in this blog because I think it fits my theme perfectly. She starts the talk by explaining how feminism and religion are linked and how even though religion can be oppressive and misogynistic it can also be empowering and feminist. A great point that she makes is that viewing god as a man is dangerous because it makes us believe that man is god, which is commonly used to prove the subordination of women.  I love the way she worded this because it helped me understand why some people believe the things they do. She continues to explain how god should be viewed as within everybody to avoid these potentially harmful beliefs. This demonstrated to me how little differences in beliefs like these can develop into oppressive ideologies. The last point that she makes is how new technology has given religious feminists a platform to learn and have a voice on topics that they might not have been able to learn about or talk about before. This is related to the next blog post, the article, “Faith and Feminism” because it discusses trending hashtags around religious and feminist concepts. However, this article focuses on proving how scripture from the bible is feminist and can be used to empower women instead of degrading them. Overall, both of these posts demonstrate in different ways how technology, feminism, and religion are all linked and can be used collectively to help fight for equality.

The next three posts, “Feminism in Islam”, “What My Religion Really Says About Women”, and “My Hijab Has Nothing To Do With Oppression” are all TED Talks and they are all related to each other under the umbrella of Islamic feminisms. The first TED Talk “Feminism in Islam” by Aabiya Baqai helped me understand general history behind women’s rights in Islamic cultures compared to the history of women’s rights in European cultures. This was eye opening to see how some women’s rights were given in Islamic cultures centuries before they were in European cultures and vice versa.  The next TED Talk, “What My Religion Really Says About Women” by Alaa Murabit gives more personal and specific examples of the ways religion and feminism clash in her culture and how she used religion to fight for feminism the same way she saw religion used for oppressing women, which was very inspiring to me. The YouTube video “My Hijab Has Nothing To Do With Oppression” by Hanna Yusuf is a quick video that really helped me understand how veiling can be used to empower women. These videos also make similar points to the readings we did in class, “Veiling Resistance” by Fadwa El Guindi and “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” by Laila Abu-Lughod. All of these videos and readings demonstrate, in different ways, how just because Islamic women and Islamic feminists might look different than western women and western feminists does not mean that they are in need of saving.

These last three posts, “7 Beliefs That Can Silence Women”, “How I'm Working for Change Inside my Church”, and “Efforts of Women of Faith to Reach Gender Equality” are all focused on challenging traditional beliefs and religions to help fight for equality. “7 Beliefs That Can Silence Women” by Deepa Narayan does not focus on any specific religion but I believe many of the beliefs that are described in it are present in many major religions. The next TED Talk, “How I'm Working for Change Inside my Church” by Chelsea Shields is about the struggles she deals with then she is trying to fight for feminist beliefs within the Mormon church. It has a great quote, “How do we respect someone's religious beliefs while still holding them accountable for the harm or damage that those beliefs may cause others?” (Shields, 6:02). I believe this is one of the most important questions that religious feminists have to deal with. The last post in my blog is the article, “Efforts of Women of Faith to Reach Gender Equality” by Rachel Koehler and Gwen Calais-Haase. I put his article at the end because it shows real world examples of religious feminists fighting for gender equality. This article also taught me how in order to reach equality it must be in all sectors of society, including religion. These last few posts also relate to the week three TED Talk in this class, “Radical Women Embracing Tradition” by Kavita Ramdas. This is because they all discuss how feminist women can also embrace tradition and use their tradition and religion to help fight for feminism.

Throughout all the readings and TED Talks in this course and my independent research on the topics of religion and feminism, I have learned a great deal. Overall, this commonplace book project has shown my significant development and learning about the positives and negatives in the relationship between feminism and religion.

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This article describes an event that many feminists of different religious backgrounds spoke at and described how their religion has affected their feminism. What I like about this article is that it talks about both sides of religion and feminism, how religion can hurt feminism as well as how religion can empower feminism. The article also gives many different examples from different religions about how that religion has specifically hurt or helped feminists. The article ends by stating that those religious ideas that were used to oppress women are being slowly replaced by ideas that help empower women.

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This is a very interesting article that talks about the struggles that many feminists face when taking the title of religious feminist. The article talks a lot about these women being forced to pick a side feminist or religious and these women deciding not to choose and proving that they can be both. This article also gives personal accounts of these women's struggles with their faith and feminism. Since I started this class thinking one could not be religious and feminist reading this article and seeing how the effects of people believing in the same idea I did and showing that this idea is actually harmful to the women who are religious feminists has really opened my eyes.

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This TED Talk is tilted “A New Feminist Revolution in Religion” by Gina Messina-Dysert who calls herself a Catholic feminist. What I like about this TED Talk is that she brings up exactly what I thought about religion and feminism, that Catholic feminism seems like an oxymoron. Before this class I believed one could not be a feminist and be deeply involved or believe deeply in a religion that has for so long been a main source of oppression. However, after watching and reading these TED Talks and articles I have come to understand how religion can not only be useful but necessary in some cases to fight for equality. Another interesting point she makes in this TED Talk is how the internet and social media is the new feminist revolution and it helps give women in disadvantaged positions a platform for their feminism and faith. 

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This article, “Faith and Feminism”, focuses on Christian feminists. This article uses specific scripture from the bible to defend its point that feminism and Christianity are not mutually exclusive and that they can not only coexist but they can use each other to thrive. This article is not as intellectual but more focuses on the spiritual religious aspects. This article takes the point that Jesus and the bible are not only are against the oppression of women but that they actually support feminist ideals. This article shows how religion can be used to support and empower feminism.

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This post is a TED Talk by Aabiya Baqai about feminism in Islam. What is interesting about this TED Talk is that Baqai examines and shows the history of how Islamic countries have treated women. She also shows comparisons of how Islamic countries and European countries have treated women. For example, in 600 CE Islam gave women the right to vote, participate in politics, and be important parts of society; the U.S. did not give up these rights until the 1920s which is 13 centuries later. What I like about this TED Talk and how it relates to my topic is that it shows how oppressing women is not embedded into religion but is put there by the people trying to oppress.

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 This TED Talk by Alaa Murabit is about how feminism can be, and sometimes has to be, fought for through religion. She talks about her personal experience during the Libyan revolution where women were encouraged to be a part of important decisions and have a seat at the table. But as soon as things got back to normal and the revolution was over women were told to go back to their old roles by political and cultural leaders using scripture to back up their points. This inspired Murabit to try and start change through political and economic empowerment. This did not work as well as she wanted so she switched to using the same thing that leaders were using to oppress, scripture. This relates to my theme because it shows how linked feminism is to religion. 

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This video does a great job in a short amount of time describing why wearing veils is not a sign of oppression and how it is empowering to some women. The same way some women are empowered by showing their skin others are empowered by covering up and having this option to wear whatever you want is feminist. I liked this post because it shows how a religious symbol, like wearing a veil, can also be used a a feminist symbol. 

For this week, after reading “Under Western Eyes” by Chandra Mohanty, a specific section stuck out to me. Under the section “Methodological universalisms”, Mohanty brought up the problem of grouping all veiled women as one. This is a large misconception, especially in the west, that if a women is veiled, she is oppressed. Honestly, when I was younger, I believed this, but as I grew up and met people who took pride in their veil, I educated myself and realized that being oppressed wasn’t necessarily the case when wearing one. I found this video where Hanna Yusef, a Somali journalist, explains how a veil could be important and a sign of being a feminist and having control over her own body. She also explains how and why over time it has been viewed as a sign of oppression when really it’s not.

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This TED Talk does not specifically talk about religion but I think that it is related to my theme of religion and feminism because these seven beliefs that Narayan describes that are used to oppress women are commonly seen in many religions. For example, the first belief that she mentions is making women's and girls bodies disappear, whether it be by physically covering them or just by not being able to talk about your body. This idea of covering or ignoring one's body is present in almost every religion. These silencing beliefs, as I have seen in other TED Talks, does not mean that these religions should be abolished but that they should develop past these oppressive ideas and beliefs and can be used to fight these unjust ideas.

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This TED Talk starts out by Shields explaining how religions are held to different standards of accountability and scrutiny.  She describes how almost every big religion today still does not allow women to be in positions of leadership or power and how if this was present in any other big organization it would not be allowed. The biggest point she makes that is related to my theme is how one can be religious and still fight for things like feminism and that people can even use religion to help them fight for their cause. 

For this week I picked the TED Talk, “How I’m Working for Change Inside my Church” by Chelsea Shields. This TED Talk is about how religion can conflict with feminism and LGBTQ+ rights and how she is trying to change it. She also explains how her own opinions about feminism have changed throughout her time being religious. I believe this directly relates to Under the Udala Trees because Shields talks about how her religion has caused harm to queer people and how she is trying to change through the church because the church holds power; which is what Ijeoma needed in the story. Overall, it is an insightful TED Talk that I believe everyone should watch.

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I found this article while researching religion and feminism. This is a broad article that lists a few ways that women have been changing and developing feminism through their faith. It mentions things like women fighting against sexual harassment in religious sectors, women holder higher leadership positions in religions, and women leading advocacy for immigrants and refugees. One of my favorite things about this article is that it is not focused on any one religion. This relates to my theme because it clearly demonstrates specific ways that women in religion are fighting for equality.  

#women's leadership