Culture and custom influence the way women and men treat one another. At their worst they are responsible for discrimination, prejudice and some appalling abuses of human rights. Being aware of culture's powerful influence on women's lives is the first step to helping them regain their rights.
Tuvalu: Keeping the status quo
As part of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, the World Council of Churches sent out teams around the world to report on the status of women in the churches. The following is an extract from an interview with a church leader in Tuvalu in the central Pacific: "We do not discriminate against women. Women play important roles at home. Men put women in the top place at home. They have important roles to play in looking after the children, doing housekeeping tasks, and they have the freedom to say anything at home.
"In community gatherings, women have a special place. The fact that they are not allowed to speak is not a discrimination. According to our custom in the maneaba, if they want to say something, they have a channel to go through (that is, their husbands).
"I cannot understand why things are made complicated. I guess these ideas reach our women through the influence of women from bigger countries where women are not cared for.
"On women's ordination, he said, "It is true that the church discriminates against women, but this is for the good of the community – to obtain a peaceful society. Otherwise, we would go against culture."
(Living Letters, Ecumenical Decade – Churches in Solidarity with Women)
Africa: Custom condones human rights' abuses
Mildred Ogaye was two weeks away from giving birth to her daughter, when her husband, Chris, died. Almost immediately after the burial, her in-laws began to blame her for Chris's death. They arrived at the house and demanded the family's belongings – "what had belonged to our son".
In desperation, Mildred started hiding goods with her neighbours, fearing she would be "stripped naked".
Throughout eastern and central Africa, customs strip widows of their human rights: since men's power over women in marriage is absolute, widows suffer through inheritance customs and even must undergo "cleansing" involving sexual intercourse with a male relative.
In Zimbabwe, campaigners recently celebrated a change in the law which removes inheritance laws unfavourable to widows. Customs prevail though, often because women do not know their rights.
(All Africa News Agency)
Caribbean: Working for an equal partnership
Before the CWM campaign "Women taking control of their lives" began, a consultation of women and men from the Caribbean and North America met in Guyana in 1997. They found, even in the churches, a culture and attitudes which prevented more equal participation in the churches' life.
Problems included men's fear of losing power, sexual harassment, discrimination against female pastors and non-inclusive language.
The consultation then suggested ways of tackling prejudice: a reinterpretation of the Bible, using inclusive language in liturgy and hymns, raising issues of gender in sermons and training on gender issues. They said, "There is a danger such a programme could be seen only as a women's issue. We have to work with men's groups to get their participation and identify more male role models."
Bible Study:
Matthew 9.11, 13, 18-25
This chapter is a list of examples of how Jesus demonstrated that God's love is all-inclusive. He does it by deliberately breaking religious and cultural taboos which had divided Jewish society into the righteous and the outcasts/sinners (v11,13).
The two stories involving women are desperate cases. One a recently bereaved woman who had not yet met burial arrangements, the other with a long-term haemorrhage. Both of them were declared unclean by their religious culture; its leaders and guardians remain on the edges of the story, always complaining that Jesus is anti-culture (vs3,11, 34). The human cost of cultural prejudice is agonising.
Having suffered for 12 years the woman with the haemorrhage longs to be whole again (v21) – being accepted into society again as much as being physically whole.
Questions
(The Economist, World Student Christian Federation, Mapusaga o Aiga, the Mail and Guardian (South Africa), Womankind)
Activities