I see it from noth sides I think, I knaow htehre is much in faith that is mysogynistic but equally there is much that is empowering, it is not a one way road at all.
It also depends on how you see your faith- if you are someone who is book led I think chances are you are going to acept feminism is not your bag
Equally though if you are someone who follows a branch that teaches you should follow your conscience and your God inspired beleifs over any book or human preaching then you will be OK.
So the answer SGB I think withong Christianity is Quakerism (OK it is for me anyway)
'As for being part of patriarchal religion and a feminist, lots of us do anti-feminist things to survive in this woman-hating world, so I don't think there is a contradiction between being part of patriarchal religion and being a feminist. What would be anti-feminist would be to try and shut other women up from talking about it or defending the misogyny.' I think thats very true Dittany. I also think though that many peopel do not accept the Old Testament in any real way within Christianity- the key texts for many are those of Jesus which are about love and acceptance, and of course the Bible is divinely inspired not divinely written: we know (as Christians) that mankind was involved in the writing of it.
And then there are many other faiths- Buddhism and Jainism has had female mendicants i high regard as far back as the faith writings go though there is certainly mucgmysogeny in Jainsim (the concept that males can go underssed but a female who did would cause the males to be tempted for example). But then you are looking at a faith way older than Christianity (we don;t know how old really)- so perhaps even having female mendicants was incredibly huge at the time, and that should be taken into consideration? What is passed onpaper or learned verse as doctrine created thousands of eyars ago should be viewed from the time it was written in when beinga ssessed (as well as for relevance in the modern world).
Then you get Hindusim and Sati, conmcpts of impure and you want to scream. Hindy feminsits tell su that sati actually emphasised the power of teh female but really it's just nasty shit isn't it? Cultural crap masquerading as religious obligation. Your hubby died, we don;t want to have to support you and our scoiety won't allow you to support yourself so off you go into the fire. AFAIK the alst incident of Sati was @ 20 yaers ago but nmy lecturer in Hindu studies tells em she thinks it still ahppens in the most rural areas: I don;t know. I hope to God not. To any God.
And Islam- the Islamic femionists are an interesting bunch. Sometimes you read them and think- it sounds like justification over reality. And of course its harder to be accepted as arguing with a divinely given book than a divinely inspired one. Theya re wonderful people though:annd they also illustrate just by thir being the truth about teh differnece bertween Muslim faith and Islamic culture. The Islamic cultures being the palces that wouldn;t allow them the chance or education to even spread their ideology. The places where a harsh interpreatation of Idslam is used to justify torture and murder of woemn (eg teh rules aroun rape in sharia law). I think when you jusge an actual religion for what it is there is much value in looking at how it exists in palces where it is not a dominat faith- and there is plenty of eviddence of female emancipation and feminsit ideology in those palces within Islam.
So. To sum up there are loads fo faith sand they all differ, but to find a place for real feminsim chances are you need to be looking at liuberal interpretations and eitehr where branches have evolved in more recent times (the last 500 yaers at elast) or where a faith has moved outiside the cultural references that it evolved within.
Ohalmost forgot Sikhism. Not sure about Sikh femionsim tbh, never encountered one but there is a big equality move behind Sikhism from the outset and any faith that can combine langar and being anti- caste has the right roots for freedom for all.