NO ONE IS FREE UNLESS EVERYONE IS FREE – Women have a dream, too
Before we get dewy-eyed about the democratic revolutions going on in the Middle East, we need to look closely at who tends to benefit. Certainly, cats won’t benefit, or dogs, or pigs or chickens, and neither, it seems will women. Aliaa Dawood, a writer, reports from Egypt that the men are staging a new revolution against women. Although females played important roles during the demonstrations, their reward is to see their male cohorts turn against them, demanding laws to curb a woman’s role in the new society.
(courtesy: “Wikipedia”)
The quota which ensured women’s participation in government has been eliminated and now questions are being raised about a woman’s right to seek a divorce or have custody of her children. (“This Week” 11/25/11)
The history of women’s oppression goes back for centuries. Christian theologians espoused the same theory as Persian patriarchs who declared:
“Heaven closed to all women except those who worshipped their husbands as gods and obeyed all the tenets of religion without doubting.” (“Man Made God,” Barbara G. Walker, pg. 103)
Obedience and credulity are the primary virtues of a woman in an aggressive patriarchal society, virtues required of a dog.
Many presume that wealth and political power are the instruments that suppress women in a society. But religious precepts have the greatest influence. Once a prejudice becomes imbedded in a culture as religious doctrine, it becomes a sin to question. Then cruel minds may vent their hatreds without limits.