In honor of Women’s History Month, the first ever interfaith forum was held at Binghamton University.
“Faith is what we feel inside, faith is what is right and faith is what we think is right,” said Albin Mathew, the president of the Binghamton University Indian International Student Union.
The event place on Thursday, March 12, in Lecture Hall 7 from 8 to 10 p.m.
The event was hosted by the IISU in conjunction with the Sikh Association, the Hindu Student Council, the Muslim Student Association and the Indian Christian Fellowship.
The idea began when Aneeta Rai, the president of the Sikh Association of BU, thought of organizing an event that would bridge the gap between both the cultural and religious groups of the Indian community and bring them together as one big family. According to Rai, since each cultural and religious group has active female members, Women’s History Month served as an opportune time to realize this dream.
The main focus of the forum was to discuss and reflect on the conflicting portrayals of women by the various religious bodies as well as the culture in South Asia. It discussed the repercussions of the negative images of women created by cultural and religious values and how these repercussions can be remedied today.
The main speakers were Swati Jain, president of the Hindu Student Council; Albin Mathew, president of the Indian International Student Union; Maria Khan, member and former social chair of the Muslim Student Association; Ishu Singh, secretary of the of the Sikh Association; and Aimee Abraham, the secretary of the Indian Christian Fellowship.
The birth of a male child is valued a lot more than that of a female child in India, and this is problematic, said Jain in her presentation.
“There is lack of rejoicing when a girl is born, leading to a massive increase in abortion,” she said.
In addition, the highest spirituality that can be attained in Hinduism before one’s death is “moksha,” which cannot be attained by a woman. In the modern day, however, women are empowered through education to rise above situations that limit them and this calls for their attention.
The first of its kind, the forum turned out to be successful.
According to its planners, an expected audience attended and remained until the end. A discussion during question-and-answer time was sustained smoothly and intensively toward the very end of the meeting.
“The forum was very informative and I learned a lot about other religious groups. Although I knew something about each religious group, I did not know it in depth,” said Carissa Rajoon, a freshman English major and member of the Indian Christian Fellowship.