Woman to be ordained, but not to be made priest in patriarchal
Aizawl, Feb 20 : The Baptist Church of Mizoram,
the second largest church denomination, has cleared the decks
for ordination of an eminent woman theologian, but she will
not be made a parish priest which is not surprising as the
state is a strict patriarchal society where full gender parity
in political and religious fields still seems to be a far cry.
Though the Executive Committee of the Assembly of the
Baptist Church has finally agreed to ordain Dr R L Hnuni,
scholar of the Bible's Old Testament and Principal of Academy
of Integrated Christian Studies in Aizawl, church leaders
clarified that she might not look after a pastoral.
"Hnuni will be ordained on March 11 at the Assembly
of the Baptist Church of Mizoram, the highest decision-maker
of the church in Lunglei after which she would have the title
of reverend and become a church minister," a church leader
says.
But the prominent theologian might not be given the
task of maintaining an independent pastoral of her own like
her male counterparts, he adds.
Earlier last year, the Executive Committee of the
church's Assembly rejected the recommendations of the Pastoral
Committee to ordain Hnuni, but finally accepted the second
recommendation in January this year.
The Mizoram Synod of the Presbyterian Church of India,
the largest church denomination in the state also is yet to
agree to ordination of women as priests and church elders
though the church employs many women theologians in different
capacities.
Legislator
Lalhlimpuii, the lone woman legislator in the first Lalhlimpuii, the lone woman legislator in the first
assembly after Mizoram attained full-fledged statehood in
1987, was the first woman minister in the cabinet of then
chief minister Laldenga, who led the first Mizo National Front
(MNF) government.
She was not only the first Mizo woman minister but
also the only one till date since no woman has ever set foot
again in the state legislature till date.
No Mizo woman has become member of parliament even as
Mizoram has one member in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya
Sabha for four decades.
Lalneihzovi laments that even in the lower local bodies
like the village councils, the representation of women is
hardly two per cent even as women outnumber men in voters'
lists.
A woman councillor of the Aizawl Municipal Council (AMC)
says that unless women reservation is in place like the 33 per
cent in the 19-member AMC, the place of a Mizo woman would
always be confined to the kitchen and home in this strict
patriarchal society.
According to Lalneihzovi, though women dominate shops,
markets and workplaces, even meat-shops, especially in Aizawl,
they still remain a minority not only in religious and
political sectors, but also in the government service.
"Women constitute only 23.61 per cent of the service
sector under the government," she says adding that there were
only 579 female group 'A' officials as against 2,369 male
group 'A' officials under the state government.
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