this question strucked in my mind a while back. i am not too aware of the religious resonings behind it, but i do believe they must have mentioned somewhere about why it's not appropriate. whether to buy their arguments or not is up to us, but i simply want to know why women in our religion (hinduism) are not allowed to perfom or participate in the last rite/cremation.

please do come. i am all ears!

LooTe

please read the title as:

why women canNOT perform last rites?

LooTe

i don't think there is a solid good reason behind it

if there is i have no idea.

except they are in period its nothing wrong to allow them to be involved in last rituals..... if they are in period its the resion for safftey and contamination...but in the present world there is nothig wrong to let them in in ritual...we must allow them in last ritual.......we must initiate for this....

thanks.

actually i was not looking for the justifications for what is right and what is not. i just wanted to know if they have mentioned any reason (in their ways) behind it.

LooTe

because we pms...
bare with it =)

as i said the only reason behind is the sanitation (as far as i understand, if there is any other reason then let us know)....as u know when women have period and esp in the earlier condition, when there was not proper way of managing it...with only cloths.......it was not good to let them participate in last or other ritual process...but with the development of different sanitation products...its definitely not worthy to deprive them from any ritual process..(if you want to continue with that ritual process)

harikancha - *slap slap*

thats all
=)

last rite as in.. tyo jalaune part ? sorry to put it in such a crude way.. but i think women do everything else except that..
and actually, i don't remember exactly when but there have been some nepali women who've defied the norms and performed all the last rites when their father died.. some Basnet girls in lazimpat, kathmandu. I thought that was amazing!
Another thing, I am pretty sure menstrual cycle is probably not the reason for women not being allowed. at least I hope that's not the reason

nepali society is a male-dominated society. women are considered lower to man in every respect. be it inside house or outside, man takes charge of basically everything that boosts their status in the society. whereas women are subjected to the hardship of the household chores and and are basically responsible for the housekeeping works. This is true in the religious practices as well. Though women do puja and worship, it is man who gets the position as priests or pujari or brahmin (whatever).
I think nepali society and it's culture is the reason behind that. That has nothing to do with sanitation.

i dont think that's the reason, that doesnt happen exactly when someone passes away

I THINK IT IS BECAUSE WOMAN ARE CONSIDERED WEAK , I MEAN EMOTIONAL WEAK. AS MEN ARE SUPPOSED TO GO FOR WAR .. GO FOR WORK WHERE AS WOMEN ARE TO CARE FOR CHILDERN AND LOOK AFTER HOSUEWORK. Considering those practice from earlier ... ...

If we start changing it, i think we can ...........................

I agree with Bhate. Women are always considered very delicate and emotionally weak.Giving out the body of their loved ones to fire, is definitely one thing they could not do.So may be the people just made it a rule and assigned the job to the male member of the society who are considered more strong emotionally.
Don't forget that nature has given such a wonderful gift to women, they can give birth to a new life so may be it was decided that women are less capable of this kind of job.

Being a woman myself, I really don't feel like participating in this kind of ritual.For me, it is not being deprived of any kind of rights, just because of being a woman.This is for men and they can handle it well I guess.

First time cleo said something that makes sense...

thank you all for your comments.
well, certainly menstruation is not the the reason behind the denial in my opinion. women are not allowed to participate in any kind of religious rituals, let alone last rite, if they are in period.

i think bhate and cleo's comments do make sense. it's because women, in general, are considered to be emotionally weaker. that's the reason why kids are also not allowed to participate.

thanks once again!

LooTe

Very good and important discussion. We need to reform and modernize our traditions so that it is in harmony with the modern era. WHile preserving the good aspects and doing away with discriminatory practices we can give sanatan dharma a better chance of surviaval for the future generations to come.

I think we are progressing Just hear today that Nepal gave citizen ship to a transgendered person as both male and female. although i personally do not like the idea of recognizing someone as having both sexes i think this gives our society a new weapon to confront and combat discrimination and bigotry.

I thought it had something to do with what happened in the after-life if a son performed the cremation (if I remember correctly). But I could be wrong.

On another note, does anyone recall the story of a Ms Indira Rana, a lawyer by profession, who performed the last rites of her mother? It got front page coverage in Nepal a few years ago as a bold and revolutionary step.

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theres nothing in hindu lore that says woment cant perform last rites
its more a cultural convention than a religious one

and seriously, folks need to move away from this 'impure while period' nonsense

I applaud women who have defied the repressive culture and done the last rites for their loved ones.

Shame on those men who deny them this right, invoking the feeble excuses such as the women are impure, weak and unchaste.

But more than that, shame on those women who think the same.

Hey Cleopatra, go and buy yourself a backbone, for heaven's sake. You might deem yourself unworthy and weak, or you might just be too dimwitted and lazy, but you speak for yourself not for women in general. Tsk tsk tsk.

i do not think they are weak emotionally and for that reason they cannot attain the last rituals. i think our religion has more respect to the women than any other religions. women are to bring the life to the world not to terminate or even participate in the last rituals.