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Some people (men) have indi...Read the full article.

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=Robot;4295097784>Some people (men) have indi...Read the full article.



Since this issue has become a major topic of discussion in the last while, I have spoken to many Muslim friends who have confirmed that shaking hands with members of the opposite sex has no consensus. Indeed I have shaken hands with many Muslims of the opposite sex both at home in Nigeria and here in Ireland so we should not allow the interpretation of personal beliefs as tenets of a professed religion.

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Hmmmmmmmmm. Religion as a basis for gender inequality is tantmount to mental retardation in my books.

I think the use of the word "inferior" is somewhat irritating, especially to anyone who has or had a mother, sister, aunt, or daughter. Women are not inferior to men in any regard. Women may be "different" from men, but most definitely not inferior in any regard.

Those who feel there is an inferior-superior relationship should gladly share with us what the basis/bases for their beliefs are. :rolleyes:

Not that I may be interested in whatever cognitively-challanged reasons those could be.

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thanks for a well-written and important article.
i got these important points..."Leadership, or headship, does not necessarily assume superiority. It is just a role. A husband and wife team is simply that: a team, after all they say two good heads are better than one."
and then "As people, we owe each other respect first as human beings.."
and finally, "To this end therefore we must examine, what the core values of a people or society are particularly when socializing in a public space. These we must respect at all times. It’s not weakness; it is called obligations and responsibility. That much we owe the indigenous people that we live in their local communities and countries after all integration is a two way street. It is give and take"
once more, thanks for a direct and truth-speaking article.

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The underlying belief that men are superior to women is similar to the misguided belief that the white race is superior to all others. Both groups of people often use religion as a fodder. I strongly beileve the fundamental issue is the tendency and desire of one category of persons take advantage of others. One can call it "survival of the fittest", "oppression of the weaker", "trample on others for your benefit" syndrome. When an individual does not have confidence in his ability to navigate the intricacies of life, he looks for ways, genuine or otherwise, to downgrade others in the faint hope that this will bolster his chances. The world is full of politics of race and gender being used by many for personal benefit. There is no end in sight as long as the world is an imperfect one. Self-confident individuals should be ready to confront bigots and institutions that perpetuate these discriminatory principles. That is the least we can do.

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Women are certainly not inferior to men. Anyone you subscribe to such crazy thought is "inferior and mentally ill". If the nominee refusal to shake hands with the female presenter is based on his religious beliefs, l can understand that. Maybe the nominee needs to expand on his reason/beliefs.

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I am very sorry indeed to hear that in 21st century Ireland, Western Europe for that matter, there are still people deemed worthy enough to be nominated, represent their communities or religions, and take platform in social issues such as refugee issues, yet also be filled with hate, ignorance and bigotry.

The road to achieving racial,gender, religious equalities and e.t.c is a very long one, but what I can tell you is that on the matrix or scale of prejudice and bigotry, race is way up there, and in fact the most significant of all the prejudices. When a society overcomes racial or ethnic prejudice, then overcoming the other ones becomes more practical.

As for me, I experience prejudice on daily basis, even from fellow women, regardless of their skin color or race. There are certain factors that motivate people to treat others badly, such as ignorance, jealousy, inferiority complex, competition, economic or social class and so on.

But of the record, you also have a responsibility to give any one that treats you badly just because of your race or gender an opportunity and exposure of their life time, by letting them know how low, little, ignorant and naive they really are, making them to understand that as human beings with conscience, they can do much better than that, than to use racial, gender or religious differences as an excuse to humiliate any one different from them or to maltreat others.

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Because of how God or nature constructed men,they are on most cases stronger than women and can withstand tougher assignments than women.
Also,on most cases,tougher jobs are reserved for men especially when it requires physical agility.
In certain areas of Nigeria for example,women engaged in farm works like clearing the bush and cultivating the ground just as men do.But the difference is in the amount of works done by men and women at the same span of time.On most cases,men did far more works than women.
Nevertheless,it has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority.It only has to do with physical abilities.The way God constructed men is quite different from that of women.
Even in the Bible when God formed Eve,He did not tell Adam that behold,I formed an inferior partner for you.The only notable expression about women is that they are "weaker".But being weaker is not inferiority.The word inferiority was never used to discribe women in the Bible.
Unfortunately as it is, certain men took undue advantage of women as being "weaker" to mean inferiority.
Those of us who grew up in the village and in the era of plantation would still remember how after men cultivated the land and planted the crops and tilled it up,women were then called upon to do the harvests.Women will harvest the crops and ship them out to the market with price tags already printed in their hearts.
Women then played the role of "salesman". They were the ones to attract would be buyers to their products and engaed them in all forms of tough negotiations before the sales is finally made.
Having finished the job of salesman,then comes the job of book-keeping.
Women kept record of all sales, and at an appointed time would duely report the sales to their husbands who on a lot of time even became so surprised at the amount of money realized from produce sales.
In some cases,women roles did not end there.The husbands made them as his bankers,accountants or treasurers. They will take custody of the family incomes.They are good economists and know very well how to budget and manage the resouces.
They are also the ones to go out and make purchases and see to the smooth running of the entire family.
How would someone then turn around and say women are inferior to men?There is something wrong with such assertion.
Which of us men can be pregnant of our own baby?Is it not the women we got pregnant and she is made to carry the baby and later on laboured and give birth, then start the nursing session? Does that amount to inferiority?
While women are structured to be somehow weaker than we men,that weakness however is not an aspect of inferiority.

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Benedicta,

If I were you, I wouldn't write this article.

To be recognised as worthy enough and to be selected to present awards in an international awards ceremony to "nominees in a particular category" (as you put it), and which category incidentally included people who may believe that women are inferior to men, you must have been seen to be enlightened enough to place yourself far above religious bigotry. If any controversy had ensued as a result of this event, you should have been able to neutralise yourself from it and show the world same while allowing others to bicker on it.

Can you see how difficult you found it to use Christianity to explain to everybody what should obtain in a pluralized society?

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From a biblical perspective (not sure what other religious teachings/non religious sects say or do not say on this)

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Sorry, but to be able to speak to all your audience on this issue, you actually need to know what other religious teachings are. You cannot just wave it aside that easily. You see what I mean?

What you feel or believe in is not enough for an exhaustive debate and may not mean much to the person on the other side.

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As a person, I believe in respect for cultural, ethnic and religious diversity but this should not negate nor contradict the core principles and values of an indigenous community or society particularly when socializing in the public sphere.

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I have a question for you. In a public sphere, which religious belief should be respected? Christian, muslim, bhudist, hindu, judaic, sikhist, Atheist?

Secondly, religious beliefs are not directly aligned with whatever education we may have; be it western or eastern. Religious beliefs can come in direct opposition to our educational awareness.

I am a Christian. Hence, by religion and by education I believe that women are equal to men from creation. But I cannot force my Muslim friends to believe same. After all, there are millions of women in the Muslim world who are comfortable with the Muslim position on these kind of issues? So who are we fighting for?

We Christians need to be open to behaviours from others that may look weird to us because some of ours could also appear weird to others. This in my opinion should be the expression of real education and enlightenment.

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I am a Born Again Christian and a Woman.

I’ve been in your Situation before. I had the privilege of Interviewing a Somalian Muslim man few years ago and at the end of the interview, as I was about to shake his hand he explained to me that he cannot shake a woman’s hand. To me this is not an issue. We have to get to a point were we can respect people’s religion. I can’t comprehend why this is being blown out of proportion or why his award is being taking away from him; to me it’s another level of discrimination. This is a non issue, UN and the Ireland people should get over it and be open-minded. Trust me, when it happened I was in shock as I’ve never experienced such reaction in my life but I took it as an opportunity to acquire knowledge; to learn about other people's culture and religion.

The fact that other Muslim friends shake hands with woman is irrelevant. Look at it this way, Christians sometimes disagree on many things. It doesn’t mean that one Christian is less than the other; their translation of the bible is just slightly different.

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Wait a minute. He refused to shake hands with her... he didn't insult her, he didn't denigrate her, he didn't actually vocalize his superiority over her, he just refused to rub the flesh of his palms with the flesh of her palms for two seconds, and for that reason he was stripped of his award.

Did he actually say, with his own mouth (obviously!) that he refused to shake her hands because she's female and therefore inferior, or did you draw the conclusion yourself?

It would seem the predominant attitude in the so called enlightened world is to enforce total neutrality. We should not acknowledge the other sex because then we're sexist. We should not acknowledge members of another race because then we're racist... and so on. Everyone and everything should be and the same.

One continuous, homogenous brotherhood of men! No sex, no race, no religion... just a sea of billions of people with no distinguishible traits and values.

Anyway... I'm just curious. How will a man know when a woman is menstruating so as to avoid shaking her hands, unless she has it stamped on her forehead. Otherwise he'd have to have a kind of X-ray vision. And if he happened to be in a position to know, say a close relative, what need would there be for him to shake her hand, in the first place, given their proximity?