12.07.2015 Views

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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2 POWER AND POLITICS I BELIEVE, THEREFORE I AMHowever, a profound ambiguity characterises the interactionbetween faith and politics. While Marx saw religion as ‘the opium ofthe people’, blinding them <strong>to</strong> the true nature of their oppression, andGramsci saw it as a means through which elites could construct andmaintain their domination, Durkheim portrayed it as a way of buildingcollective identity that promotes social cohesion and stability. 25 Indifferent places at different times, religion can encourage activism,conformity, or hatred.Nowhere is this contradic<strong>to</strong>ry role more evident than in relation <strong>to</strong>women’s rights. Fundamentalists of virtually all religions view theemancipation of women as profoundly disturbing, their influencegiving rise, for example, <strong>to</strong> the curious alliance of the Vatican, theIranian government, and the US government <strong>to</strong> block internationalprogress on sexual and reproductive rights. At the same time, organisedreligion is undergoing change, often at the behest of women activists.In the cases of Islam and Catholicism, reinterpretation of scriptureshas moved in parallel with changing attitudes and beliefs, withwomen’s rights leading <strong>to</strong> a new popular approach <strong>to</strong> the faiths,despite the opposition of the religious hierarchies (see the case studyon Morocco on page 67).39

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