1. "The Law Code of Manu is both favorable and unfavorable towards women." Provide evidence to argue for both parts ("favorable" and "unfavorable") of this statement.
In my personal opinion, I view the Law Code of Manu as being much more unfavorable towards women than favorable. However, the code does state that women must be honored and adored by all of their male relatives in the family. A women is supposed to be an expert and have all of the household duties. In the Hindu hierarchy, this is considered an honorable task. Both of these examples can demonstrate how the Law Code of Manu is favorable towards a woman. There are still very many unfavorable beliefs towards women with this code as well. For example, a women must never be independent. She is forced to obey the man her father chooses for her to marry, even if he is lacking virtues or is unfaithful in the marriage. This mean the wife must stay with him even if he is abusive or cheating on her, and she has no control over it. Even after all of his downfalls, he still needs to be worshipped as a god by his faithful and committed wife.
2. Summarize what Richter says about how reading scriptures conservatively versus reading scriptures more in historical context can have a large effect on gender issues in
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Religions like Judeo-Christianity and Islam believe that Eve is the sole reason Adam ate the fruit and this cannot be changed, even if it views women as being the source of seduction and evil. The historical context acknowledges that this could have happened, but the negative views of women cannot continue to oppress women in our current society. This viewpoint understands that these beliefs were appropriate at that time period but no longer are in current society. They promote change and adapting to our current state of the