Hyderabad: The Department of Women Education (DWE), Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) in collaboration with the Centre for Study & Research (CSR), New Delhi organized today an International Seminar “Religion & Gender: Beliefs, Practices and Beyond”.
Dr. Celene Ibrahim, Harvard University/Groton School, USA in her virtual keynote address broke the age-old perception of religion being an oppressive force against women and provided the women-centric interpretation of the religious texts. While raising some key questions to ponder on the theme she also provided a way forward.
Prof. Syed Ainul Hasan, the Vice-Chancellor, presided over the inaugural function. He pointed out the subtle gender prejudices in English, Urdu and Greek literature, different movies and arts. The audience appreciated his critical appraisal of the historical narrative. He underlined a sense of protest in most of the contemporary writings of women as a result of age-long oppression against the females.
The chief guest, Prof. Arvinder A Ansari, Department of Sociology, JMI in her address spoke about the intersectionality of Gender and Religion and also problematised the issue in the Indian context. She provided various illustrations in which prejudice is reflected in society.
The Guest of Honour, Prof. Ajailiu Niumai, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), HCU said that all religions basically focus on equality. “Practically it is not so equal, because when we look at leadership, it is mostly men who are the priests. In today’s time, good numbers of women priests are there in western countries but India has only a handful of them.
Dr. Ameena Tahseen, Head, DWE delivered the welcome address and gave a brief introduction about the seminar. Shujauddin Fahad Inamdar gave brief introduction about CSR. Dr. Shabana Kesar, Assistant Professor, DWE convened the programme.
