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Jainism, women and equality

In the time of Mahavira, Jainism brought a more enlightened attitude to Indian religious culture.

Jainism is a religion of equality

Jainism is a religion of religious equality, devoted to recognising the rights of all living creatures, so not surprisingly it accepts that women are able to play their part on the road to liberation.

But although Jainism is in many ways dedicated to equality, for some Jains a woman's very femaleness creates spiritual inequality.

The sectarian divide

The Digambara Jain sect believes that women cannot achieve liberation without being reborn as men first. The Svetambara sect disagrees.

Nakedness

Digambara Jains hold this view because they believe that nakedness is an essential element of the road to liberation.

Mahavira himself, whose life shows Jains the way to liberation, set an example of total nudity that Digambaras believe monks should follow. Since women are not allowed to be naked in public they cannot achieve liberation directly, and so are seen as second-class citizens.

This ban on female nakedness is partly intended to protect both men and women:

If women went around naked it would cause men to experience sexual desire and the desire produced would hinder the man's progress to liberation.

Naked women would feel ashamed of being naked and the feeling of shame would hinder their progress to liberation.

It's also intended to prevent the disruptive consequences of allowing women to walk around naked.

Ahimsa and women

Digambaras also believe that women are inherently himsic (which is best translated as harmful). This comes partly from a belief that menstrual blood kills micro-organisms living in the female body.

The killing of the micro-organisms is said to show that a female body is less non-violent than a male body - although that idea doesn't have any scientific support and isn't found in modern Jain thinking.

Impurity

Some Jain texts say that menstrual blood is a sign of impurity.

But the idea that women are spiritually impure because of menstruation is a rather odd basis for a Jain argument, since Jainism usually concerns itself with thinking, speaking, and acting rightly - there isn't any other area where Jainism says that involuntary bodily functions are a spiritual obstacle.

Attachment

Another argument is that because a woman's nature is to care for children and other dependants, she will find it much more difficult to break free from these earthly attachments, and unless she does this, she cannot achieve liberation.

Find out more

• Jainism - Subdivisions