WESTERN WOMEN
I have heard so much about women's lib and all the ordeals the Western woman has gone through to get her rights in voting and to be able to attend certain universities and to be able to work certain jobs. I, like other women all over the world, have watched as those rights were given one by one, each after a long fight.
What amazed me though, was the fact that after all what these women have attained they’re still not happy and they are still fighting for other women’s rights. This all set me thinking:
-What is the reason that those women are not content with all they have gained?
-Why are the rights they are fighting for aren’t registering with me any longer?
The answers came to me through reading about the new issues they are addressing now:
“Help the women in Afghanistan”
“Gay and Lesbian rights”
“Young feminists”
“Abortion rights”
“Women-friendly workplace”
I decided to search and find out what is it that these women are looking for, is it really rights?
-“No”... came the answer these women are all searching for recognition.
You see my dear friends after all you’ve attained you never really got the thing you all have fought for, for so long.
Do you know what you’ve been seeking for? Recognition .. by your menfolk they gave you some rights but no real respect your STATUS is still the same, maybe even worse than before.
I had to find out more so I searched for more related subjects. I found out that women in certain organizations were really angry because there are ‘all-male’ organizations, other women are really angry about what’s happening to the poor eastern women,.The women in Mexico, the women who can’t vote in the Gulf countries, women in Morocco and Guatemala (who allegedly) are deprived of the rights to make basic decisions in their lives, countries refusing to give women complete citizenship (allegedly in Algeria, Kuwait, Cyprus, Egypt, but to name a few).
I finally came upon a comparative study by Dr. Sherif Abdel-Azeem called “Women in Islam versus Women in Judaeo-Christian Tradition” which shed the light on much of what I was pondering.
THE REASONS FOR THE DEPRAVATION OF HER RIGHTS:
The Western ideals were the direct result of the biblical (old and new testaments) .The western woman has been fighting a losing battle without realizing that whatever she gained she was going to lose some way or other. She has always been looked down upon by her men, she has even degraded herself more by shying away from religion. By thinking if she can do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, with whoever she wants, that this is considered freedom and it will give her the right status she deserves.
Poor soul, she has been searching all this time for her primary rights as a
human being. All she got was turning into a showcase for amusement: glamorous actresses in movies, beautiful women on TV, semi-dressed women in advertisements, cute stewardesses on planes, newspapers and magazines feature glamorous women on their covers, pornography and even worse! Women ,women, women ,everywhere!How Women Have Been Treated All over the World
If we go through history before women started demanding those rights, we will find:
1)Women in China:
Women had a very low status in society, they were given inferior chores .Newborn males were godsends ,females no one was happy about. When she grew up she hid in her room and if she vanished ,nobody cared.
2)Ancient Greece:
She was no luckier than her likes in China. She lived in the house as if she was nothing, and what made it worse was that some of the great thinkers then, said her name should also be locked up in the house as is her person.
3)The Romans Civilization:
A woman never had her separate personality, but she was considered (and whatever she owned) the possession of her husband. Some of the writers then wrote that the marriage contract was a contract proving the woman’s slavery to her husband, as she was before a slave to her father.
4)Old Indian Civilization:
She was like a slave to her husband where he could lose her in gambling.If her husband died she doesn’t get married but she works as a maid in other relatives households. Often she is burned with her dead husband so that she may join him in another life.
5)Arabs (in Jahiliya) before Islam:
1-Marriage by trade: A man marries a woman at the same time he promises his sister or daughter to that woman’s brother in return .(no dowry because it’s a trade!)
2-Marriage by inheritance: If a man dies ,then his brother inherits the widow, if there is no brother then the closest relative of the deceased inherits her.
3-Marriage by buying: It was the most widely spread form of marriage,and a man who had a daughter(although it was shameful to have a daughter in the first place) was lucky in having her to sell!
4-Widowhood: A widow had to shave her hair and scratch her face ,she had to stay in a small house for a whole year in grief (wearing her ugliest clothes, not allowed to cut her fingernails), her food brought to her.
5-Infanticide: Infant girls were buried alive to get rid of the shame of having born a female.
6)Eve as temptress in the Bible:
This has resulted in an extremely negative impact on women throughout the western world.
“No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman….sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die” (Ecclesiasticus 25:19,24)-The Biblical Eve has played a far bigger role in Christianity than in Judaism:
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I don’t permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner”
(I Timothy 2:11-14)a-The attitude towards the birth of a female:
The Catholic bible states explicitly that:“The birth of a daughter is a loss”(Ecclesiasticus 22:3).
Jewish Rabbis made it an obligation on Jewish men to produce offspring in order to propagate the race
: “It is well for those whose children are male but ill for those whose are female”.b- Education of women:
-According to the Talmud: “Women are exempt from the study of the Torah”.
-In the New Testament it’s no different:
“As in all congregations of the saints women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home: for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” (I Corinthians 14:34-35)c-Menstruating women are considered unclean and impure:
“When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days and anyone who touches her will be
unclean till evening.” (Lev.15: 19).d- Legal status:
A married woman in the western world has no legal status. No act of hers has any legal value. Her husband could repudiate any contract, bargain or deal she had made. Western women had suffered for almost two thousand years because of the biblical attitude towards women’s positions vis-à-vis their fathers and husbands. (Matilda J. Gage, Woman, Church and State).
Conclusion:
I could go on and on but you can find out more –if you like - in the comparative study I mentioned earlier .I was just shedding some light on the reasons for the world-wide women’s lib movement.
There are similar reasons for the women’s lib movement in the civilizations of the Far East.
So again I would like to give my apologies for my deep mis-understanding of the situation. And I really do share your grief, as the advertisement goes “ you’ve come a long way baby”!