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Separation of Sexes in Religion

To: tariqas@world.std.com (Tariqas Elist)
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Haramullah)
Subject: Separation of Sexes in Religion
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 13:53:57 -0700 (PDT)

49960510 (on the subject of separation of men and women in religious practice)

assalam alaykum, my kin!


Mike Granger quoted an unknown individual:
|Why is it so easy to pigeonhole women with the same stereotype, but 
|happily, no one in his or her right mind would advocate the same view 
|with respect to race?

Perhaps it relates to what LIla wrote recently....

Lilyan Ila 
|...the fallacy that only men have historically been 'leaders & shapers of 
|society'. If it appears to be so, it is surely because 'history' has and 
|continues to be selectively presented....

Besides the obvious racism and bigotry which inhabits cultural centers of
immigration and competition (Pacific Rim regions, for example, where I live
in the US -- CA -- are becoming some of the most diversified and so this
kind of bigotry breaks down as does the society).

Maybe the reason women are pigeonholed with the stereotype is that it is
easier to deal with them that way (by not doing so).


MSiddiqui quotes Sheikh Nazim regarding separation of women and men in salat:
|Mawlana Shaykh Nazim then went on to ask the interviewer the question:
|
|        "If you say you never saw it in your religion, why did they
|         build priories for nuns and monasteries for monks?"

Sufis maintain that sufism does not support the type of ascetic monasticism
which is being referred to here.  The intent was a kind of seclusion from
the world which Sufis often eschew (esp. longterm).  As a means of temporary
regrouping or reservation (I forget the Arabic term to which Sheikh Hisham
referred when I visited his lovely center), withdrawal is compared to the
plant which requires concealment (perhaps 'taqiyya') temporarily so as to
protect its new shoots.

Yet, is this the justification being used for separation during salat?
Sheikh Nazim seems to be trying to draw out a parallel which extends only
so far.  Yes, there were divisions, but these were for people (and still
are!) whose practices of withdrawing from society constitute a potentially
*permanent* condition.

In some ways I can see the parallel clearly.  Religion: sex-separation, a
type of withdrawal for the purposes of interacting with Allah most directly.
And yet it has never been my understanding that the type of separation
implied and practiced within Christian monasticism was of a similar calibre
to that witnessed in mosques.

Instead I would point to many Christian religous traditions which in fact 
separate the church in halves by sex, the pews of one side housing males,
that of the other females.  I'm sure this is a common practice for the
reasons set forward above (likely within *many* religious traditions),
and yet it is given particular emphasis in Islam I notice (sometimes
involving entirely different worship areas or relegating the worship of
women to the home).

peace be with you, my kin.

tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Haramullah)

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