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SIKH WOMEN IN NORTH AMERICA l 693 her commitment to Jainism is provisional: “Where it’s progressive, I embrace it; where it isn’t, I drop it.” And when it comes to the question of gender, she finds that as a Jain she has occasion both to celebrate and to denounce it. She complains that although Jainism espouses a radically egalitarian philosophy, it remains a patriarchal tradition . “It deserves praise for having recognized the legitimacy and importance of lay and ascetic women’s roles in the community, from the very beginning. But women have always been considered subordinate to men.” For instance, although women are far more involved in religious life than men, until very recently they had been excluded from the structure of authority, prestige , and power. Even within the ascetic orders, where they outnumber men and have had illustrious careers, women are subordinate to the monks. Over 2,000 years ago, a debate over the question of female spirituality began that still divides the community. According to Inaya , it reveals deeply held biases against women. The debate centered on the question of the possibility of attaining nirvana immediately following a life in a female body. Those of the Digambara sect argue that nirvana can never be achieved from a female body—that a woman must be reborn as a man before spiritual liberation can occur. The Svetambara sect claim that a woman can attain liberation directly, albeit with greater difficulty than a man. This issue continues to be a central question over which the two sects remain divided. Women are not initiated as full ascetics among the Digambara . Whereas, among the Svetambara, female asceticism is well institutionalized, with females outnumbering males and, as a consequence, wielding a considerable degree of influence in the community. Though the two sects disagree on questions of female religiosity, both hold the same negative understanding of female nature as flawed, associating sexuality with sin. And although theoretically sadhvis and munis are considered as equals in the Svetambara sect, in practice the sadhvis are subordinate. Inaya, like most North American Jains, is from the Svetambara sect. But she does not derive much comfort from that: “The ideas that they [the Svetambara and Digambara] share in common are greater than their differences ,” she maintains. However, she is sanguine about the future, arguing that in religiously and culturally pluralistic North America, new ideas are constantly being inserted into religious debate, and old, antiquated ones discarded. “This is the force of anekantvada,” she beamed. Samaniji, Paulomi, and Inaya represent three distinct views of Jainism among myriad visions. The differences and diversity within the community are vast, and an accurate portrait would need to include a discussion of many others—for instance, of the women whose faith is expressed through ritual and temple-based practices and of the grandmothers who followed their families to Canada (often without knowing English) and who have sought to preserve the ascetic basis of the tradition here. Yet, in large part, the young women’s views are representative of the majority. Their lives illustrate some of the changes occurring in women’s roles, and in Jainism itself, as the community takes root in North American soil. Each embodies modern aspirations and traditional values in a way that challenges conceptual frameworks that would set them apart. And in spite of their divergent views, each woman emphasized the centrality of ahimsa in their own lives, illustrating how traditional Jain teachings continue to have striking contemporary relevance. Jainism’s egalitarian philosophy has withstood the caprice of history and remains the core of the tradition today as in its ancient past. As Paulomi puts it, “No matter what epoch one lives in, the ideal of nonviolence is unchanging and everlasting.” SIKH WOMEN IN NORTH AMERICA Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh SIKH WOMEN CAN be recognized by the circular steel bracelet worn around their right wrist. Although the short-styled hair is becoming more popular with the young generation, Sikh women usually have their hair long, either neatly braided or put up in a bun. They can also be distinguished by the salwar (loose pants), -kameez (shirt to the knees), and dupattas (long sheer scarves) that they wear. Westerners tend to confuse this north Indian form of dress with the sari, which is approximately six yards of material draped by most women in India. In recent years, the salwar-kameez has become very popular with women from different religious backgrounds, and fashion designers are even incorporating contemporary...

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