An Iranian girl, aged 16, has been left in a coma and is being treated in hospital under heavy security after an assault on the Tehran subway, a rights group said on Tuesday, blaming the Islamic republic's notorious morality police.
Religion is a tool that comes in very handy for patriarchy. And all major religions are patriarchal because patriarchy came first. But religion is not a necessary nor sufficient condition for patriarchy to flourish. Patriarchy twists everything to its own purpose. That's the whole suffocating thing about power. It can protect itself like nothing else can.
People make decisions with constrained choices. If you're a woman livng in a patriarchal society which limits your ability to earn an income, and will demonise you for not staying home with your children, then you need to reliably attach yourself to a man who can earn the income you can't. That's how the marriage bar was justified. (Middle-class) married women were denied (white collar) employment to make more room for men to advance their careers. And why there are mixed feelings about divorce. Being trapped in marriage is no fun but neither is being abandoned with limited ability to earn a living alone.
Hostile sexism tends to co-exist with benevolent sexism. In places where there is a lot of anti-woman sexism, the women tend to hold more hostile and more benevolent views of men (eg men are violent therefore I need a big strong man to protect me).
Religion is a tool that comes in very handy for patriarchy. And all major religions are patriarchal because patriarchy came first. But religion is not a necessary nor sufficient condition for patriarchy to flourish. Patriarchy twists everything to its own purpose. That's the whole suffocating thing about power. It can protect itself like nothing else can.
I agree that it went like this:
Patriarchy -> Religion -> Patriarchy
I'll never understand why women nowadays are still servant of religion. "Yes, ill serve my man. I'm nothing but a baby carrier". It's crazy.
People make decisions with constrained choices. If you're a woman livng in a patriarchal society which limits your ability to earn an income, and will demonise you for not staying home with your children, then you need to reliably attach yourself to a man who can earn the income you can't. That's how the marriage bar was justified. (Middle-class) married women were denied (white collar) employment to make more room for men to advance their careers. And why there are mixed feelings about divorce. Being trapped in marriage is no fun but neither is being abandoned with limited ability to earn a living alone.
Hostile sexism tends to co-exist with benevolent sexism. In places where there is a lot of anti-woman sexism, the women tend to hold more hostile and more benevolent views of men (eg men are violent therefore I need a big strong man to protect me).