Gender approaches by the leaders of religious groups of the Nepali diaspora in Portugal

In this study, we depart from a brief description of the religions adopted by the Nepali religious group leaders and shamans that we interviewed, considering their ideas, conceptions, beliefs and images about gender – which can differ greatly across western and eastern religions (Casanova, 2009; Pillay, 2013; Fassin, 2020; Żuk and Żuk, 2020). We proceed with a number of authors analyzing the varieties of religiosity both in Nepal and in the Nepali diaspora (Gellner, Hausner and Shrestha, 2016; Baltutis, 2020; Owens, 2021), to then address those focusing on the patriarchal and gendered nature of migration (Hiralal, 2020). Adopting a qualitative research design, our methodology’s novelty consists of five semi-structured interviews of 1h30m each with one Nepali Hindu shaman, two Nepali Buddhist shamans and two Nepali Christian leaders (one Anglican leader and one Catholic leader) who were active in Lisbon’s Metropolitan Area (Portugal) during the Summer of 2023, analyzed via NVIVO 12. The novelty of our results consists in describing and analyzing the perspectives and concepts associated with gender issues and gender equality, as expressed by several Nepali religious leaders and shamans from the Nepali diaspora living in Portugal. We found that gender perspectives and approaches adopted by the religious group leaders differ greatly across religions, and across the gender of the religious group leaders themselves. Generally, the two Nepali Buddhist shamans and the female leader of the Nepali Catholic group displayed a greater understanding of, and more progressive views towards, gender issues and gender equality in religious worship groups.