Gender apartheid
Presbyterian minister and author Patricia Budd Kepler points towards women's institutionalized struggle for acceptance into clergy and religious leadership roles as an example of gender apartheid.
Specifically, Kepler criticizes the traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity that limit female authority in the church, insisting instead that women's entrance into the ministry does not disrupt divine order.
[13] Similarly, author Susan D. Rose describes the patriarchal family structure of evangelical Christian churches in America as maintaining gender apartheid.
[14] The Roman Catholic Church has been identified as perpetuating gender apartheid due to the Vatican's listing of "the attempted sacred ordination of a woman" as a delicta graviora—in other words, a crime of equal standing to sexual molestation of minors, and "acquisition, possession or distribution of [child] pornography by a cleric".
[19] The observance of sexual modesty and plain dress for both Muslim men and women is prescribed by the ḥadīth literature and sunnah (deeds and sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions);[20] the practice of forced veiling is perceived in some areas as a form of gender apartheid.
[25] The dress code imposed in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime and schools that require girls to wear a headscarf have been cited as examples of forced veiling.
[18] Women were banned from working,[18] girls were forbidden to attend schools or universities,[18] were requested to observe purdah and to be accompanied outside their households by male relatives; those who violated these restrictions were punished.
[31] Walid Phares writes that Marxism in the Soviet Union and China, as well as "secular anticlericalism" in Turkey forced women to "integrate themselves into an antireligious society" resulting in a backlash of "gender apartheid" by Islamic fundamentalists.
[33][34] Comprising a small but steadily growing minority within the Jewish culture, Haredi Judaism is distinguished as a community of scholars, with a significantly larger proportion of men continuing their education in yeshiva than women in seminary.
[35] Followers of Haredi Judaism are also distinct for their clothing and general appearance: unshaven beards, long dark overcoats, and wide-brimmed hats for men; and modestly covered women.
[35] Additionally, public images of women have been defaced in Haredi communities, and young Jewish girls have been spat on and called prostitutes for wearing clothing deemed immodest.
However, one incident arose in December 2011 in which a Haredi man asked a woman seated in the front of the bus to move towards the back; her subsequent refusal spurred a larger gathering.
[citation needed] They are also segregated from men during these events and many other occasions; for example, informal gatherings and dinners, especially when these take place in the presence of a senior monk.
Afghanistan, under Taliban religious leadership, has been characterized by feminist groups and others as a system of gender apartheid in which women were segregated from men in public and could not enjoy legal freedoms or equal access to employment or education.
[47] Pakistani society has been described as employing gender apartheid due to the subordinate status of women in political, economic, and social spheres.
Moreover, in terms of personality and disposition, males and females are characterized as distinct opposites: while women are "vain, silly and stupid", men are "intelligent, brave and strong".
[55][56] Acts of gender apartheid purportedly manifest in many different forms, such as the ban on women from physical education in school and from watching sporting events at stadiums.
[59] In general, women in Saudi Arabia possess the same legal rights as minors and cannot make major decisions, e.g. in education, work, and healthcare, without the consent of a male relative.
Recent advancements have been seen in light of Arab Spring and the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests, such as King Abdullah granting women's suffrage in the 2015 municipal elections.
Some argue that the UN "not only failed to prevent and, later, to become an effective opponent of the gender policies of the Taliban regime, but that it actually incorporated discrimination against women in its humanitarian assistance and in the recruitment of local staff.
"[43] In 1997, the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) launched the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan, calling attention to the human rights abuses against women under the Taliban.
