ABSTRACT
In the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, religions play central roles in the construction of gender and sexuality, with implications for individual behaviour relating to sexual relations and fertility and the functioning of social units, especially families. Benchmarking the analysis against internationally accepted norms of women’s rights, gender equality and the expression of sexuality, the chapter considers whether and how these principles are reflected in religious teachings and reviews available evidence on the views and behaviour of individual adherents, with respect to attitudes towards and the regulation of bodies and sexuality; fertility, contraception and abortion; gender, sexuality and attitudes to HIV/AIDS; and attitudes to homosexuality. It then examines gender relationships within families, focusing on marital relations; work, property and inheritance; and the education of children. The analysis reveals that, although all the traditions assert the spiritual equality of women and men, patriarchal interpretations of religious teachings dominate, and all reflect and reinforce a system of gender relations that institutionalises male power over women and considers sex that does not have a reproductive purpose to be immoral and illegitimate. Religious institutions secure women’s compliance but are also susceptible to wider socio-economic and cultural changes, international influences and challenges from within.
