LONDON — The three Abrahamic faiths were created in patriarchal cultures. But recent events have shown that none of these faiths can survive in the 21st century as expressions of patriarchy.

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are all being tested by the comparatively recent — and not entirely secure — advances of women to full equality. Western Christian churches are seeing a rise in controversies over female priests and bishops. Fundamentalist Islamic cultures are being challenged by women's desire for education.

In Judaism, whose liberal branch has long ordained women as rabbis, women are fighting for the right to pray equally at the religion's holiest site: the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Temple in Jerusalem. Leading this challenge to tradition is a group called Women of the Wall. 

This is the fifth in a series of posts about dwindling Christian communities in the Middle East.

CAIRO — For 21-year-old Rojeh Reda, a Christian living in Cairo’s working-class district of Shubra, the recent rash of sectarian violence in Egypt feels like a movie he’s already watched.

He knows the script by heart now: Christians and Muslims clash, mostly Christians are killed, the government does nothing to help and the faint spark of change vanishes in a flash.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Last fall, the Rev. Marcio Retamero was invited to testify before members of the Brazilian congress, where he talked about human rights generally and the rights of sexual minorities in particular.

His subsequent run-in with Silas Malafaia, the jet-setting pastor of Brazil’s largest Pentecostal megachurch, became front-page news.

“Silas Malafaia twisted my words to make me look like the biggest gay terrorist in the world,” said Retamero, the pastor of Betel Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Rio de Janeiro.