Virtue, Gender and the Family: Reflections on Religious Texts in Islam and Hinduism
Abstract
Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2000 Virtue, Gender and the Family: Reflections on Religious Texts in Islam and Hinduism Habibeh Rahim INTRODUCTION What is meant by the term family? What is the normative value system that would define and designate the realm of virtue within a family? These questions become significant as technology provides human beings with increasingly more lifestyle choices. Indeed, as the vast globe is rendered a village, the issue offamily values and gender functions takes on novel interpretative contexts. Although a variety of definitions and affiliations may be applicable to the term family, the genesis of the isolated family unit is essentially a result of the union between two people of the opposite gender and the children that result from this sociobiological alliance. Despite the high divorce rate in the Western world and the number of nontraditional family components, the institution of marriage remains a vital and compelling sociophilosophical element of contemporary life. Generally, young and older people join the ranks of matrimony, and there is an expectation of the fulfillment of all anticipated joys and pleasures, companionship, and harmony. However, sometimes the anticipated marital bliss declines and replaced by