Feminism and Secularization of Religion

Modernity or modernism is the set of qualities and characteristics of modern civilization which has emerged in recent centuries in Europe and North America. Secularization (or secularisation) is being used to describe and analyze the processes of modern societies. It is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular institutions. Feminism has, in a sense, been derived from Western civilization and in another sense it is a reaction to modernity. In this respect, feminism is in direct confrontation with the tradition. While analyzing tradition, feminism severely criticizes religion as one of the most important components of gender discrimination. So, it should be noted that there is a considerable relation between secularization of religion and social movement of feminism. With aim of downplaying the meta-institutional role of religion and making religion compatible with the demands of feminism, secularization of religion, in one of its approaches which seeks to provide a new and worldly interpretation of religion, has been well received by feminists in general and religious feminists in particular. In this regard, we try to take this relationship into consideration and focus on some examples related to these indices at the same time as counting the indices of secularization of religion and feminism.