ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complex role of religion in domestic violence by drawing out the unique factors that impact on the lives of women from various religious backgrounds. As the literature has shown, the obvious place to start when examining gendered discourses in the context of religion is the subject positions of male headship and female submission. The creation story and the figure of Eve can be used within religious contexts to construct femininity as being potentially dangerous and something to watch out for. In religious stories, female characters can also be drawn upon to reinforce particular feminine subject positions of submission. Women can gain respect, status and forms of satisfaction, affirmation and affection by fulfilling particular subject positions embedded in religiosity. However, if they are perceived as acting in other subject positions that are not so desirable or positioned as dangerous, femininity can be loathed and constructed as usurping male power.
