The muzzling of woman is far more then just a religious issue. Its psychological, cultural and systemic. For me as a man it makes me angry, sad and depressed. As a man all of my first instincts, anger, violence, blunt action into the forces that nurture and spread such attitudes. Which makes it even messier. And it is not just the muzzling of woman but also the muzzling of the traits that are female tendencies; patience, love, sacrifice, persistence in the face of hardship. So as a man when I express such sentiments quite often I am accused of being weak which doubles back into the anger/violence tradition of man as it far harder to be patient, loving and calm then impatient, angry and violent. Woman are far tougher then men in many ways. But men have since the dawn of agriculture and the establishment of permanent human settlements used the excuse of female weakness (which are not actually weaknesses) as a tool for oppression. And not just towards woman but trans, gay and men who tend to more sensitivity. For me what is happening and I see continuing to happen is a world were gender becomes fluid across the board and irrelevant to your junk in the trunk your skills, attitude and abilities are what matter. I hope that the human imbalance of power vs. weakness changes and people can let old wounds heal and come together first as humans putting all else nationality/gender/race/sex etc. to the back burner. I hope we can survive the death throws of Trump and the white power movements.

People make religions. The problem is the people, not the religions. The people created religions to justify their oppression women. People join religions because it justifies their oppression of women. Or they stay with religions because they justify their oppression of women. When people stop being okay with oppression of women, they leave their religion if it justifies oppression.

Men may be ignoring that fact as hard as they can, still......

I’m not sure it’s correct to blame the suppression of women on religion.There are some religions that do not muzzle women. For examples look to new thought churches.

Middle East society once consisted of warring desert tribes where men were dominant. Any religion springing from that region will naturally reflect its social mores, but religion did not cause those social mores.

.....and this is why I have hated religion my whole life. As a teenager, this was what I picked up on and I couldn't understand how anyone with any sense of fairness or decency could be a part of that 'tradition'. It just makes me crazy, crazy, crazy ???.

And some religions are based solely on the muzzle! ?

If someone can accept and support, without flinching, the murder, rape and enslavement of other people, men women and children, what is a little misogyny to them?

Not to be an apologist for religion, but let's be clear. MEN muzzled women for centuries. In those places where religion was a factor, it was a vehicle, not the driving force behind it, as you can find societies lacking in religion that did the same, and conversely, religious societies that did not oppress women.