Feminism and Spiritual Citizenship
By Alka Arora
This article is taken from Tarka Journal Volume 6, ‘On Spiritual Citizenship.’
Tarka Volume 9, ‘On Power,’ will be released in 2026.
The question that motivates this essay is “What does spiritual citizenship look like through a feminist lens?” Feminists have long argued that even the most intimate aspects of our lives – our relationships, dreams, and aspirations – are not merely private, but have political dimensions. Perhaps nothing is more intimate than our relationship with the Divine, and there may indeed be something about this relationship that transcends politics. Nonetheless, the ways in which we communicate, practice, and build community around spirituality are deeply imbued with power. Patriarchal ideas about sex and gender infuse language and imagery about the Sacred, sexism and racism rife within many spiritual communities (even those that have seemingly eschewed religious dogmatism), and spiritual leaders remain overwhelmingly male and heterosexual. We need, as Leela Fernandes has argued, a “decolonization of the divine.”
Below, I offer four ideas for how spiritual citizenship can be transformed by applying a feminist lens.
Each theme is followed by questions for reflection and discussion.
1. Engage the politics of the intimate
Many of our famous exemplars of spiritual activism, such as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, are men who fell short when it came to their gender politics. Rev. King was a serial adulterer, while Gandhi used young women to test his own capacity for sexual austerity. Countless gurus and spiritual leaders from across traditions – mostly male – have been caught abusing their power, particularly in the sexual realm.
Other famous leaders, such as Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dalai Lama, have, to my knowledge, remained free of sexual scandals, and they have much to teach us about the values of compassion and spiritual practice. Yet, as monastics, they cannot be exemplars of how laypeople can apply spiritual principles to the realm of intimacy, particularly sexual intimacy.
This is not a call to “cancel” the spiritual activist leaders mentioned above. We can respect their powerful public leadership – and their ability to inspire love, nonviolence, and visions of sacred justice – while also recognizing that it is time for us to collectively work toward unlearning patriarchy in both our private and public lives. “Intimate activism” can look like taking seriously accounts of impropriety or abuse while actively fostering cultures of consent, egalitarianism, and transparency.
The work of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), a nonprofit that uses the power of truth-telling and dialogue to help people shift away from patriarchal modes of relating, offers one example of how a spiritual lens can be applied to the work of gender healing. As a certified facilitator of GERI workshops, I have witnessed firsthand how sharing stories of our gendered experiences under patriarchy can foster participants’ deep commitment to undoing systems of inequality and abuse. This work is supported by an interspiritual framework that emphasizes contemplative practice, personal integrity, and group accountability.
Similar practices of truth-telling and gender egalitarianism can be brought into other spiritual communities and social movements. Sexuality must come out of the shadows, where abuse thrives, and into the light where it can be openly discussed. While all individuals must be part of the work of undoing cultures of abuse, there are gender-specific ways that such work needs to move forward. Men or masculine-identifying individuals must learn more about active consent and commit to interrupting sexism and sexual coercion wherever they see it. Women or feminine-identifying individuals must be afforded safe spaces to speak up about abuse and be empowered to own their boundaries. Moreover, people of all genders can benefit from learning about the dynamics of intimate abuse so they can be better allies and advocates.
Questions for Reflection:
What thoughts and feelings arise in you when you hear of abuses by beloved spiritual teachers and activists? How can you hold yourself and everyone involved with compassion without denying or covering up misdeeds?
Consider your own spiritual beliefs and traditions. What principles do they offer to guide ethical behavior in the realms of everyday interactions, including sexual and other intimate interactions?
Reflect on your own gender conditioning. What might you need to learn – or unlearn – in order to promote consent culture within your communities?
Does your spiritual community actively challenge gender inequality and gender-based violence? If not, what can you do to advocate for women’s and queer rights within your community?
2. Cultivate “post-heroic leadership”
“For too long, too many of us have been entranced by heroes. Perhaps it’s our desire to be saved, to not have to do the hard work, to rely on someone else to figure things out… Somewhere there’s someone who will make it all better. Somewhere, there’s someone who’s visionary, brilliant, trustworthy, and we’ll all happily follow him or her. Somewhere…“
Margaret Wheatley and Debbie Frieze
I agree with Wheatley that it is time to transcend our cultural fixation on heroes. Those of us who aspire to be engaged spiritual citizens in a chaotic world may long for clear direction from spiritual or activist leaders who capture the public imagination with their charisma and courage. While it can be wonderful to find inspiration and wisdom from gifted orators and organizers, there is a danger in giving away our power – and our responsibility – to others. Indeed, it is such relinquishment of power that has allowed the abuse of spiritual leaders to go unchecked, as discussed above. Rather than waiting on heroes, we can encourage each other to embrace our own inner wisdom and agency to shape the world. This idea is consonant with the concept of post-heroic leadership, defined as “a set of shared practices that can and should be enacted by people at all levels, rather than a set of personal characteristics and attributes located in someone at the top.”
