Gender approaches by the religious leaders the Nepali diaspora in Lisbon

We describe and analyze the perspectives and concepts associated with gender issues and gender equality, as expressed by several Nepali religious leaders and shamans, who adopted different religions, in the Nepali diaspora. They organized cerimonies and rituals in the region of Lisbon, Portugal. Adopting a qualitative research design, the methods used consisted 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 a Catholic one) who were active in Lisbon’s Metropolitan Area (Portugal) during the Summer of 2023, together with NVIVO 11 content analysis. Our results show that gender perspectives and approaches adopted by these religious leaders differ greatly across religions, and across the gender of the religious leaders themselves. Generally, the two Nepali Buddhist shamans and the Nepali Catholic group’s female leader showed a greater understanding of, and more progressive views towards, gender issues and gender equality in religious worship groups.