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Gender equality, a prerequisite for the establishment of the oneness of humanity, remains largely unrealized, despite the struggles of the last one hundred and fifty years to attain such equality. The extreme slowness to eradicate the causes of inequality is at least partly due to discriminatory attitudes ingrained in linguistic styles and philosophical suppositions that have left their marks on human thought, behavior, social institutions, and religion. Gender inequality is a widespread phenomenon and its genesis hard to determine. Women’s rights have been universally undermined for countless centuries. While the underlying causes of depriving women of their rights and degrading their status may seem different in various parts of the globe, the similar effects they have produced indicate that the root causes must be the same. This article focuses on philosophical and linguistic gender-related biases and their effect on the degradation of women’s status in religion. It also offers suggestions for eradicating the causes of inequality in order to hasten world unity. Résumé L’egalité des sexes, une condition préalable à l’établissement de l’unité de l’humanité, demeure un objectif qui est encore loin d’être atteint malgré les luttes menées depuis un siècle et demi en vue d’y parvenir. Si celle inégalité est extrêmement lente à disparaître, c’est en partie en raison des attitudes discriminatoires enracinées dans les styles linguistiques et les suppositions philosophiques qui ont marqué la pensée, le comportement et les institutions humaines et religieuses. L’inégalité des sexes est un phénomène très répandu dont l’origine est difficile à déterminer. Les droits de la femme ont été bafoués partout dans le monde, et ce, depuis des siècles innombrables. Bien que les causes sous-jacentes de la privation des droits des femmes et de la degradation de leur condition peuvent ne pas être les mêmes dans diverse parties du monde, le caractère commun de leurs effets semblerait indiquer que ces causes sont essentiellement les mêmes. Le présent article examine deux questions, soit les préjugés philosophiques et linguistiques fondés sur le sexe et leurs effets sur la dégradation de la condition des femmes dans la religion. L’article offer également des suggestions visant à éliminer les causes de cette inégalité en vue d’hâter l’avènement de l’unité mondiale. Resumen La igualdad de géneros, requisito previo para el establecimiento de la unicidad de la humanidad, permanece aún, en gran parte, sin efectuarse, no obstante las luchas de los últimos ciento cincuenta años por lograr tal igualdad. La extrema lentitud en desarraigar las causas de la desigualdad se debe a modos de pensar discriminatorios inculcados en los estilos lingüísticos y en las suposiciones filosóficas que han dejado sus huellas tanto en el pensamiento humano, como en su comportamiento, sus instituciones sociales, y su religión. El desequilibrio en los géneros es un fenómeno de alcance extendido de orígenes dificiles de determinar. Los derechos de la mujer han sido universalmente socavados durante sinnúmero de siglos. Aunque las razones fundamentales de haber despojada a la mujer de sus derechos y de haberle degradada su condicion aparentan ser diferentes en distintas partes del globo, los efectos similares que producen indican que los motivos causantes deben tener el mismo origen. Este artículo se concentra en dos asuntos, es decir, las inclinaciones negativas lingüísticas y filosóficas relacionadas con género, y los resultados de las mismas en rebajar la condición de la mujer en la religión. También presenta sugerencias para erradicar las causas de la desigualdad acelerando así la unidad mundial. The Effect of Philosophy and Language on Religion No religion admits to partiality, yet the practice of according preferential treatment to the male half of humanity has been justified and defended by almost all religions of the past. Indeed, we are still caught in the use of what is interpreted today as a sexist language prevalent in religious scripture. The result is the impression religion conveys that it is primarily concerned with the interests of men. If misunderstanding (rather than deliberate misrepresentation and one-sided philosophical treatment of a discriminatory attitude) is to be blamed for the maltreatment of women, the use of language has had much to do with such misunderstanding. Some aspects of philosophy and language responsible for lowering women’s status in religion are cited below, and the thesis advanced that gender equality is a prerequisite for the oneness of humanity and world unity. Indisputably, it is far easier to silence objectors to inequality through the imposition of arbitrary religious restrictions than through reason and logic. To this end, male clergy and theologians interpreted religious texts in their favor and gave undue prominence to references in the holy books that promoted their own interests. They, at the same time, minimized or ignored passages that clearly indicated men and women were created as equal human beings. To ensure that their extrapolations of the scripture would go unchallenged, they deprived women of the benefit of education, rendering them illiterate and incapable of detecting the misrepresentation. Lack of education prevented women from acquiring the powers they needed to challenge men’s assumption of a superior role in religion and society-hence, women’s acceptance of the maltreatment. Creation and the Riddle of the Man–Woman Relationship The Old Testament begins by saying “So God created man in his own image ...male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has confirmed that both men and women were created in God’s image and likeness (Selections79). Bahá’u’lláh has stated in clear language that upon the reality of human beings God “hath focused the radiance of all of His J names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self’ (Gleanings 65). God has conferred upon women and men alike a free will to distinguish good from evil and right from error, sending divine educators from time to time to restate religious truth and guide the people aright. Many men, however, especially philosophers and theologians, have interpreted divine Revelation to promote their own interests and defend their presumed superior status. Details about the genesis of inequality are not known, but traces exist that suggest reasons for its introduction and perpetuation. Biblical scholars who worked on The Dartmouth Bible, desiring to fathom reasons for existing inconsistencies in the Old Testament, carried out extensive research and made discoveries that help us put things into perspective. According to these scholars, before the Old Testament was last rewritten by the Priestly school about 400 B.C.E., the Elohim and Jahweh schools had produced earlier versions, commingling sacred stories with Hebraic history and myths inherited from Babylon and Canaan. The Priestly school consolidated the earlier versions into one but retained two contradictory stories about the creation of the first pair of human beings. Since the two stories .appear in close proximity in the initial chapters of Genesis, their retention must have been deliberate. Did the priests’ disagreement result in keeping both versions, or was the prejudice against women so pervasive that they had to pacify the people by including both versions? Whatever the real reason may have been, it either laid the foundation for degrading women’s status in religion or gave religious support to discriminatory views already in circulation. It is noteworthy that the distorted creation story was widely accepted and, together with the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, was used by theologians and priests in a way that had an adverse effect on the popular view of women’s inherent nature. Some recent biblical scholars, such as Phyllis Trible, however, believe that “the Bible is sometimes not as patriarchal as translations would make it seem” (Trible, quoted in Murphy, “Women and the Bible” 48). A passage cited as evidence is Deut. 32:18 which, in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, reads: “You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.” Trible says: “Those words ‘gave you birth’ are from a Hebrew term for ‘writhing in labor,’ so the translation, if accurate, is tame. But here is how the Jerusalem Bible translates it: ‘fathered you’” (quoted in Murphy, “Women and the Bible” 48). When religious scripture was repeatedly selectively interpreted by, religious scholars and institutions to advance a narrow and often negative view of women’s inherent nature and the consequent requirement that men “rule over” women, women’s low status was reinforced. Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade, argues that in the Middle East, first in Mesopotamia and Canaan, and later in the Hebrew kingdoms of Judea and Israel, the remaking of sacred stories, along with the rewriting of codes of law, was largely the work of priests. As in Old Europe, this process began with the first androcratic invasions and continued for millennia, as Egypt, Sumer, and all the lands of the Fertile Crescent were gradually transformed into maledominant and warlike societies. (85) The proximity of the date (about 400 B.C.E.) of rewriting the Old Testament by the Priestly school and the writing of Oresteia (a Greek drama) by Aeschylus, and the similarity between attempts these have made to discredit women, signify the influence that one exerted on the other. The Oresteia denies the right of parenthood to the mother who is depicted as “only the nurse of the new planted seed that grows” (Eisler, Chalice 78). The rewritten version of the Old Testament, now current, legitimizes attempts to discredit women and justifies, through stories, their subordination to men. The serpent was also targeted for damnation in the Old Testament because of its assoc

Effect of Philosophical and Linguistic Gender Biases on the Degradation of Women’s Status in Religion