sreekant

There is no such criteria It all depends on your Guru, The Devi and You This is the true answer that people do not want you to know

Actually, the truth of it all is the fact that women can actually do all the things and read everything that a man can. In fact, when they do it, it is more effective. Due to that, the priests and people of that time, put women down and restricted them so that they can get an upper hand. From then on, superstitions have been created to prove this to be true, but in fact it is perfectly fine for a women to chant the Durga Suktam. It is actually recommended because it would be 10 times as powerful as what a man would say. If you have the time, please go to the Rajarajeswari Peetam in Rush, NY, U.S. The temples website is srividya.org. They in fact promote the teachings of these slokas to the women. There is also one concern though, certain mantras like parts of the Rudram shouldnt be chanted externally by a women when pregnant because of the contraction of the stomach when chanting certain syllables and sounds. If you have any further questions, please email me at sreekant2k@hotmail.com. Hope this helped