Women’s Interreligious Round Table

March 30th, São Paulo, Brazil

Closing the celebrations of the Women’s month, Amisrael carried out a round table of debates only with women, representing the three major monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and São Paulo’s city hall, supported by counselor Jooji Hato.

Women’s Interreligious Round Table

Leading the table, Dr. Kélita Machado spoke about the importance of women in religion and thanked the presence of the speakers in the opening of the event. AMISRAEL has an interreligious network and I hope all of you Will come to be part of it, once the male representation in such events is the majority and we need women to take these seats as well.

The initial speech was delivered by Magali Vaz de Lima, the representative of the Brazilian Mosque, who spoke about how the media distorts Islam. “The Muslims are forbidden to kill them selves or others. (…) Islam completes me, it’s a beautiful religion. Islam hates prejudice; it is not our place to judge.” A little of the history and origins of Islam was presented to the audience. Magali spoke about the veil used by women, saying it is not compulsory, and it’s worn in a sign of respect and value for women.

The world was created by words, thus the importance of this event said Rachel Reichhardt, the first and only soferet – woman allowed to transcribe the Torah (Jewish Bible) - in Latin America. Rachel, representing Judaism, highlighted her own struggle and persistence over 10 years to reach her present status, which she calls a victory, even among progressive Jewish communities.

We are culturally still dependent on men. We have come to the conclusion that everything was written by men.
We have a long way to go, and it’s by studying and committing ourselves that we will achieve change.

Kélita Machado, Magali Vaz de Lima (Islam), Rachel Reichhardt (Judaism) Dulcinéia Miranda (Christianity)

Man and women are both very different from one another, we must thus work on the things we have in common said the Soferet.

We live in an open society, within Christianity we already have the freedom to speak, to preach. And that is what we are here for: speaking. (what amazes me about women is that) We are not slaves or dependent beings, we are submissive. When we are truly loved, it’s our pleasure to submit, highlighted the preacher Dulcinéia Miranda, the representative of Christianity.

After the three speeches, there was some time dedicated to the audience questions, who could learn more about the three religions from the feminine perspective. The singer Marcia and the violinist Miro Correa paid homage to all women, by singing the song Woman from Elba Ramalho.

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