Divorced from Citizenship: Palestinian-Christian Women between the Church and the Jewish State

The vast multidisciplinary literature on marital dissolution tends to conceptualize divorce as a personal, individualist act that naturally resides in the domestic sphere. The article challenges this prevailing scholarly perspective by dissecting a substantially underexplored dimension of divorce as a citizenship-certifying act located squarely in the public sphere. Drawing on a pioneering qualitative study among Palestinian Christians in Israel as a case study, we argue that Israel’s divorce law, which locks Catholics into indissoluble marriages, should be recognized as a key state instrument for delineating the contours of citizenship—a boundary-demarcating apparatus between insiders and outsiders who are excluded from full and equal membership. The article provides novel insights into the complex interrelations between divorce, gender, and citizenship, showing how Palestinian-Christian women pay the price of a purportedly sex-neutral, no-exit regime. The article also illuminates a seldom-studied phenomenon we call “divorce conversion”: the act of changing one’s denomination for the sake of marital freedom, which is a hallmark of Palestinian-Christians’ third-rate status in the Jewish state. We conclude that divorce should be reconceptualized as a right to egalitarian female citizenship, serving as a basic precursor to women’s full participation in all spheres of life.

Menegoisasikan Identitas Seksual dan Identitas Religius: Pengalaman Perempuan Kristen Berorientasi Homoseksual

Becoming a lesbian as well as a follower of a religion that opposes homosexuality creates an ambivalent and contradictory experience. This study aims to reveal the personal experiences of four homosexually oriented Christian women in Surabaya. All participants are members of Protestant Christian church congregations with different denominations. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using an interpretive phenomenological analysis technique. The results of this study reveal three main themes, namely: living in two worlds, reconciling homosexual identity with religion, and making life decisions. The first theme reflects the dilemma experienced by the subjects when they realized that their choice as a homosexual was a sin in the perspective of their religion but they could not be able to force themselves to be a heterosexual woman. The second theme describes how the subjects tried to compromise between their homosexual orientation and their religious teachings. The last theme contains how choices are made when homosexual identity cannot be compromised with religious identity. This study concludes that most of the participants are trying to become a devout Christian and at the same time be able to engage in the same-sex sexual orientation. Keywords: homosexual identity, religious identity, lesbian, Christian Abstrak Menjadi lesbian sekaligus menjadi pemeluk suatu agama yang menentang homoseksualitas melahirkan pengalaman yang ambivalen dan kontradiktif. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap pengalaman personal empat perempuan Kristen yang berorientasi homoseksual di Surabaya. Seluruh partisipan merupakan bagian dari anggota jemaat gereja Kristen Protestan dengan denominasi yang berbeda. Data dikumpulkan menggunakan wawancara semiterstruktur dan dianalisis dengan teknik analisis fenomenologi interpretatif. Penelitian ini berhasil mengungkap tiga tema utama yaitu: hidup dalam dua dunia, mendamaikan diri, dan mengambil keputusan hidup. Tema pertama mencerminkan dilema yang dialami para subjek ketika menyadari pilihannya sebagai homoseksual adalah dosa namun tidak mampu memaksakan diri untuk menyukai lawan jenis. Tema kedua menggambarkan bagaimana para subjek berupaya mengkompromikan antara orientasi homoseksualitasnya dengan ajaran agamanya. Tema terakhir memuat bagaimana pilihan diambil ketika identitas homoseksual tidak dapat dikompromikan dengan identitas religius. Hasil penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa sebagian besar partisipan berupaya menjadi seorang Kristen yang taat dan sekaligus dapat menjalani orientasi seksual sesama jenis.

Misogyny: Are Personal Laws Androcentric?

The age-old prejudice of misogyny is still retained in insidious form even in legislations. There are numerous international conventions, as well as Constitutional provisions which claim to set man and woman on an equal plane. In India, one legislative sphere which prima facie appears to perpetuate the gender divide are the personal laws. In India, except for the State of Goa, personal matters are determined on the basis of religion. Different religions follow different laws, but what is common to them all, is the secondary position accorded to women. This paper discusses the international provisions dealing with equal human rights such as, Charter of the United Nations, 1945, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 and The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The paper elaborates on the Constitutional provisions providing for equality as well investigates whether the personal law provisions applicable to the Hindu, Muslim, and Christian women dealing with marriage, divorce, guardianship, and inheritance are discriminatory and misogynistic in nature. The paper studies the laws from date of enactment till the present day. The method of study is doctrinal. As a road map or suggestion, the analogous provisions of the Uniform Civil Code in Goa are highlighted. Judicial precedents are cited, suggestions are put forward.

THE PILGRIMAGE OF WEALTHY PIOUS CHRISTIAN WOMEN FROM ROME TO THE HOLY LAND IN THE FOURTH TO SIXTH CENTURIES AD

This study examines the pilgrimage of Christian women ascetics in the early Christian period from the fourth to sixth centuries AD, focusing on wealthy Roman women who were influenced by the Church Fathers, such as Jerome and left their world, freedom, family and social class. They sold their properties in order to come to the Holy Land (the Land of the Bible) to visit the holy places and the desert hermits and to build monasteries, hospitals, hospices, orphanages and accomodations for old people through the Holy Land. The pilgrimage of women ascetics was a characteristic feature of the period. In spite of the difficult journey, these ascetic women came to fulfill their religious and spiritual needs. These women have been remembered throughout the ages for their faith, piety, tenderness, purity and devotion and have served as role models for women after them. This study examines the concept of pilgrimage in Christianity and the pilgrimage of the women ascetics and their religious and social accomplishments in the Holy Land.

#FAITHANDFITNESSCOLLIDE: SPREADING THE WORD OF MULTILEVEL MARKETING IN CHRISTIAN WOMEN’S FITNESS INSTAGRAM POSTS

With the emergence of the coronavirus in 2020 led to the closing of gyms and churches, along with the “she-cession” in which women disproportionately left the workforce (Hammer, 2021), Christian women with an interest in fitness increasingly turned to home-fitness-based multilevel marketing (MLM). MLM companies like Beachbody, for example, saw a 300% increase in subscribers in 2020 (Haithman, 2020). Although MLMs encourage their distributors to think of themselves as “independent entrepreneurs,” these companies demand fealty -- putting Christian women who participate in a double bind: bound to company, family, and God, they must still position themselves as free agents and strong women in order to build their “fitness ministry” (Coach 8, 2020) and close the sale. We extend Sullivan & Delany’s (2017) framework of “evangelical entrepreneurial femininity” by asking how fitness complicates or shepherds the relationship between the independent entrepreneur, the MLM, and the patriarchal foundation of her religious practices. Our initial research suggests that Christian women navigate the potential shame of occupying a masculine economic role and a muscular body by reframing Beachbody as an opportunity to fulfill God’s plan, (re)inhabit the home, and encounter the Divine through their uplines. References: Haithman, D. (2020, May 18). Beachbody sees gains. Retrieved from https://labusinessjournal.com/news/2020/may/18/beachbody-sees-gains/. Hammer, B. (2021, January 25). How to fix women's jobs during the covid-19 pandemic. Sullivan, K. R., & Delaney, H. (2017). A femininity that ‘giveth and taketh away’: The prosperity gospel and postfeminism in the neoliberal economy. Human Relations, 70(7), 836-859.

Sex in the Arena

Although popular culture has long perceived the gladiators as the manliest of Romans, posturing before howling crowds of plebeians as the rock stars of their day, the sex of gladiators as constructed by Romans is rather more complicated. This chapter considers the sexualized nuances of the arena, touching on the relative masculinity of gladiators within Roman social and political hierarchy, as well as the sliding scale of virility among the different styles of combat. The phenomenon of women in the arena is explored: were spectacles that were populated by women contestants designed to titillate and persuade in a way that was different from the more standard shows? Instances of spectacularized sex, shows that allegedly featured literal sexual engagement, point to demonstrations of moral and political authority by imperial sponsors; literary descriptions of risqué performances likewise functioned as moralizing critique of imperial powerbrokers. The genre of textual descriptions shaded the message of sexual power as well; Christian martyr acts reworked the suffering of Christian women condemned to the arena, claiming for them authority and agency that was both founded on and defiant of their gender.