Abstract
Several recent studies have suggested that sex, specifically the control of female sexuality, looms large in fundamentalist language. ‘Controlling women’ looks at gender issues in fundamentalist beliefs. Family values are central to religious thought and behaviour in almost all religions. During times when social or political changes are likely to affect the family, religions often react strongly. This reaction isn't always conservative. Fundamentalist emphasis on family values, with women holding the central role, is perceived as having an element of economic realism, legitimising and sanctifying an economic inevitability. Fundamentalisms are dynamic movements in the contemporary world.
