Gloria Steinman speaks about how her personal experience inspired her strong presence in the Women’s Rights Movement.
Gloria talks about Human trafficking, porn v. erotica,the contagion of rights movements etc. http://www.makers.com/gloria-steinem/
‘The church is a terrible engine of oppression, especially as concerns women.’–Elizabeth Cady Stanton
‘I have endeavored to dissipate these religious superstitions from the minds of women, and base their faith on science and reason, where I found for myself at last that peace and comfort I could never find in the Bible and the church…The less they believe, the better for their own happiness and development…
For fifty years the women of this nation have tried to dam up this deadly stream that poisons all their lives, but thus far they have lacked the insight or courage to follow it back to its source and there strike the blow at the fountain of all tyranny, religious superstition, priestly power, and the cannon law.’ —Elizabeth Cady Stanton
”We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn’t been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best mids at the stake.”–Catherine Fahringer
”The tragedy is that every brain cell devoted to belief in the supernatural is a brain cell one cannot use to make life richer or easier or happier.” —Kay Nolte Smith
”It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world.”–Lydia Maria Child
”There is yet another consideration which is fatal to the Christian religion, and that is its persecuting spirit. It calls in the aid of Ecclesiastical and civil laws, and the iron hand of custom to condemn, and if possible to punish those who may express different opinions to its own…Perish the cause which has no more rational argument in its favour than that which the stake or prison can supply.” —Emma Martin
”Christianity is an insult to the wisdom of the nineteenth century. To place before its progress and development a leader, ruler, king, saviour, god, whose knowledge was less than a modern five year old school girl, is an outrage upon humanity.”–Ella E. Gibson
”Possessing no proof of its (God’s) existence, the church has ever fostered unintelligent belief. To doubt her “unverified” assertion has even been declared an unpardonable sin.”–Matilda Joslyn Gage
”There is no book which tells of a more infamous monster than the Old Testament, with its Jehovah of murder and cruelty and revenge, unless it be the New Testament, which arms its God with hell, and extends his outrages throughout all eternity.” —Helen H. Gardener
”Less power to religion, the greater power to knowledge.”–Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner
”Let us inquire what glory there was in an omnipotent being torturing forever a puny little creature who could in no way defend himself? Would it be to the glory of man to fry ants?”-Charlotte Perkins Gilman
”A believer is not a thinker and a thinker is not a believer .”–Marian Noel Sherman
”Ethical teaching is weakened if it is tied up with dogmas that will not bear examination.”–Margaret Knigh
”The greatest contribution nonbelievers have made to the world has been the Constitution of the United States. Consider how very heretical to a religious world was the idea of a Constitution predicated on “We the People.”‘-Siver Queen
“The religious scriptures are nothing but rules and laws made by men. Whatever you hear from the priest, may have been the opposite to what a woman priest would say. No one can say the religious Scriptures are really the revelation of God. Men has advertised them as the revelation of God to keep the womankind in dark.”–Begum Rokeya
”There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages.”-Ruth Hurmence Green
”It’s an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don’t try to make it posthumous.”–Gloria Steinem
The great feminist Robin Morgan is talking about the importance of separation of church and state.
Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, Anne Royall, Harriet Martineau, Lydia Maria Child, Ernestine L. Rose, Margaret Fuller, Emma Martin, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy N. Colman, George Eliot, Susan B. Anthony, Ella E. Gibson, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Lucretia Mott, Frances Wright, Betty Friedan, kate millett, Germaine Greer, Katherine Hepburn, Sonia Johnson, Lois Waisbrooker, Elmina D. Slenker, Lillie Devereux Blake, Marilla Ricker, Annie Besant, Susan H. Wixon, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Helen Gardener, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Josephine K. Henry, Clara Zetkin, Etta Semple, Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Zona Gale, Margaret Sanger, Marian Sherman, Dora Russell, Meridel Le Sueur, Margaret Knight,Katha Pollitt, Barbara Smoker,Polly Toynbee,Joan Smith, Jennifer Hecht, Queen Silver, Vashti McCollum, Ruth Hurmence Green, Catherine Fahringer, Susan Jacoby, Meg Bowman, Barbara G. Walker, Rosalind Franklin, Sherry Matulis, Kay Nolte Smith, Sonia Johnson, Louise Antony, Meera Nanda, Gisèle Halimi, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ayn Rand, George Sand, Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, Andrea Dworkin, Nawal El Saadawi, Lucy Parsons, Antoinette Fouque, Eve Ensler, Meredith Tax, Begum Rokeya, Sukumari Bhattacharji, Maitreyi Chatterjee are among tens of thousands of atheist feminists and female atheist writers/philosophers/playwrights/actresses/artists/astronomers/physicists/scholars etc.
Here is a list of suggestions/demands ‘the League of the International Rights of Women’ made. I support their ideas. What about you?
”Universality of the Olympic Charter
The Olympic Games will open in London on 27 July 2012
“The Olympic Movement has always been about more than just a sporting competition” [IOC (International Olympic Committee) President]
The only Law that governs the Games is the Olympic Charter based on universal values which each member of the Olympic Movement swears to observe (Olympic Oath).
The Olympic Charter proclaims:
• A goal: ‘to contribute to building a better world’ (Chapter 1, Rule1.1)
• Universal fundamental ethical principles, such as: ‘Any form of discrimination [including gender discrimination] is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement’ (Principle 5)
• A commitment to equality: ‘implementing the principle of equality of men and women’ (Chapter 1, Rule 2.7)
• Neutrality in sport: ‘No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted on any Olympic sites, venues or other areas’ (Chapter 5, Rule 51.3)
The Charter as a lever for the rights of women:
Where cultural and/or religious traditions govern political institutions and social mores, women are still subject to constraints linked to gender stereotypes and taboos.
In the stadium, under the same law, wearing similar attires, women athletes share with men the joy of exertion and striving for the highest goal.
1. To ban countries that exclude women from their delegation (Principle of non-discrimination):
In 1992 a feminist association the Atlanta + Committee (an offshoot of the League of the International Rights of Women)
denounced the absence of women from 35 delegations to the Barcelona Games: South Africa was excluded from the Games for 30 years for racial apartheid. Why has sexual apartheid not received the same treatment? The foundation stone laid by the Atlanta + Committee has now become part of Olympic history:
‘On the eve of the centenary celebrations of the modern Olympic Games, entirely new demands have been put forward by a European-founded feminist coalition. Quoting the Olympic Charter, which bans any form of discrimination in the Olympic Movement, the Atlanta + Committee publicly urges the IOC to exclude from the Atlanta Games any delegation that comprises only male athletes’ (extract from Vol. III of A Century of the IOC).
The number of delegations that do not include women has shrunk from 35 in Barcelona in 1992 to 3 in Beijing in 2008, thanks to pressure from the Atlanta + Committee. But why do the Games still accept countries that so openly violate the Olympic Charter?
2. To ensure neutrality in sport by banning the wearing of political or religious symbols (Rule 51 on the neutrality of sport):
As far back as 1994, Tehran delegates at the Brighton conference on ‘Women and Sport’, asked for the rules governing sport attire to
be amended to allow the wearing of garments that are imposed on all women by the Khomeini regime. In 1996 an Iranian woman athlete took part in the Atlanta Games clothed from head to toe. In 2008 at the Beijing Games, 14 delegations had veiled women: an athlete from Bahrain took part in the 400 m race totally covered, openly demonstrating a political and religious stance. In 2010 in Singapore, at the first session of the Youth Games, the IOC accepted – with the approval of FIFA – the participation of female Iranian football players covered from head to foot.
3. To stop supporting separate Games for women, which institutionalize sexual segregation in sport (Principle of non-discrimination):
Since 1993 and every four years, Iran has organised Games – replicating the Olympic format – for women from Islamic countries.
There is one major difference: the total absence of the media or male spectators. Since 1995, the Atlanta + Committee has
denounced the presence of IOC observers at these Games. The IOC justifies this by claiming that it is a step forward as it allows these women to take part in competitions. However, during apartheid in South Africa the IOC had declared that competitions organised for Blacks only were unacceptable. Why does it now approve segregation that goes against the Olympic Charter?
4. To demand effective parity between men and women within Olympic disciplines and events (Principle of non-discrimination):
Age-old disparities… The Modern Games (1896), as conceived by Pierre de Coubertin, excluded women, apart from a few disciplines that were considered secondary (golf, tennis, sailing) .
Thanks to Alice Milliat’s (one of the first women sport managers) and others persistence, in 1928 women were finally admitted to track and field events.
Since then, a long battle has been waged on two fronts: to increase the number of female participants (29% in 1992 in Barcelona, 42% in 2008 in Beijing) and to widen the range of sports open to women.
At the London Games the introduction of female boxing will open another door.
Although they show some progress, global statistics still hide the persistent lack of equality.E.g. at the Games in Beijing in 2008:
• There were 1704 more male athletes than female athletes.
• 165 medals were given to male athletes compared to 127 to female athletes because of a lower number of disciplines opened to women.
…still hidden in the ‘details’
There is now parity as regards the number of sports open to both men and women. There are discrepancies, however, as to the corresponding number of disciplines and events. Examples of disparity: in boxing, canoeing and wrestling there are fewer events for
women, e.g. canoeing has three events for men and only one for women.
5. To observe the minima determined by the IOC and increase the number of women participating in the decision-making bodies (Commitment to the promotion of equality)
Women are still a small minority in the governing bodies of the Olympic Movement, such as the IOC, NOC, OCOG, International and National Federations.
At its 105th session in Atlanta in July 1996, the IOC decided that the NOCs should allow women at least 10% of the seats in all decision-making bodies by 31 December 2000. This rate should have reached 20% by December 2005.
We are still very far from this goal! Here is a striking example: of the 19 members of the 2012 London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), only one is a woman: the Princess Royal.
6. In and around the Games: eliminate gender discrimination based on sexual stereotypes (Building a better world)
To fight against sexism, homophobia and transphobia.
• In the Olympic Movement sport has an educational role and contributes to the building of identities.
Within the framework of the Games, it is important to reject gender stereotypes and the sexualisation of the sportsman’s or
sportswoman’s image. The wording is also important: for example, describing an event as a ‘women’s event’ but not describing an event as ‘a men’s event’ is a way of saying that sport is first and foremost for men.
• Everyone has the right to take part in sport
Only a small number of sportsmen and women openly declare their homosexuality. These Games must demonstrate that the Olympic movement is aware of this issue and ready to make a lasting commitment to fight homophobia in sport at all levels.
The 2012 Games must be a secure and welcoming place where everyone must be able to take part without fear in respect of their sexual orientation.
Paralympics
In the same spirit, why not include the paralympic events in the Olympic Games so that all athletes can benefit from the same public and media exposure!
Fight against organised prostitution around the Olympic sites
During every large sporting event, prostitution increases dramatically. It would simply be unacceptable for London if, once again, a sporting event were accompanied by organised prostitution, as was the case at the football World Cup. Buying sex is not a sport, it is downright exploitation.
7. To pay homage to women pioneers in sport: the Marathon Gold Medal should be given to both the male and female marathon winners by the IOC President (Principle of non-discrimination)
The Marathon is still at the heart of the Games: before the closing ceremony the only Gold Medal personally given by the IOC President is to the (male) Marathon winner.
Why not to the female winner?
At the first modern Games in Athens (1896), Stamatha Revithi, a Greek woman also known as Melpomene, was refused the right to compete in the Marathon because she was a woman.
She persevered, ran a solo race, finished it in a respectable time and became a legend!
Why not organise the Marathon for both men and women, the latter starting their race before the male competitors so that the winners of both sexes can share the applause?
Our message addresses everyone but especially the Olympic Movement
This is a reminder
• to those who argue that ‘these demands are outside their remit’:
In 1958 in an open letter to the President of the IOC, Olav Ditlev-Simonsen, of the Norwegian NOC, was the first to request the exclusion of South Africa because of its apartheid policy.
• to those who prefer to compromise with requests, devoid of any connection with sport, made by certain countries:
The Olympic Oath they have sworn makes them ambassadors of the Olympic values and not of their own country’s policy.
The IOC’s only response to our many requests has been:
To welcome the growing number of women athletes participating in the Games.
This answer avoids the truth: women are still excluded, as a matter of principle, from certain delegations, just as Blacks were from the South African delegation.
The IOC never argued with the antiapartheid movement that they should be satisfied with the growing number of Black participants from other countries. It acted according to the Charter.
To keep silent on the breaching of Rule 51 and other rules of the Olympic Charter.
Enough is enough!
Why is it that what was considered by the Olympic Movement to be intolerable for Blacks is tolerable for women?
We demand an end to gender-based discrimination and stereotypes.
London must mark the turning point:
Great Britain is the birthplace of modern sports based on standardised rules and their application;
British feminism has left its mark on the history of modern societies and on democracy;
The Games are taking place in Europe, where it is claimed an ambitious plan is being developed
The 2012 Olympic Games provide a historic occasion for affirming the rights and duties of women and men in sporting competitions and for reminding participating countries of the obligation they have to respect that equality. ”
We fought against patriarchy and religion for our sexual freedom. We now fight against multi-billion dollar sex industries to stop sexual exploitation of women. We fought against religion for our abortion rights. We now fight against misogynistic patriarchal societies to stop sex-selective abortion. It seems it is a never-ending fight.
”The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl’ ”– Shirley Chisholm
Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning economist said in 1990, that more than 100 million women are missing. ‘In India, China and some other countries in the world , girls are killed, aborted & abandoned because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of gendercide. 50 million missing campaign fighting gendercide in India. Gendercide is war on women.
We know at birth boys outnumber girls, there are 105 or 106 male children for every 100 female children. But later women outnumber men because women are more resistant to disease, and tend to live longer than men even if men and women receive similar nutritional and medical attention and general health care. India and China are having skewed sex ratio at birth. In some places of India there are even less than 700 girls for 1000 boys.
Abortion is legal, but sex-selective abortion is not legal in India. Some people have tried to talk about law. Those women who have killed their own female fetuses, cried out, ‘law, what is law? Will the law come to my aid when my husband throws me out of the house or kills me for giving birth to yet another girl! Will the law help me when my husband marries again in the hope of a son? Can the law change the way society looks at me because I have no son! ‘
If the woman cannot provide a son, her life is torn asunder by strife. To put it bluntly, the message flashed by society – and this is what people really think, no matter what they say – is that, if you have two sons, you have two eyes. If you have one son, you are blind in one eye. And if you have two daughters, you are completely blind.
The women who support female feticide also say, ‘why should we let them live? We do not want any girl. Should we let girls be born so that they suffer the way we are suffering? They say, what good does being alive do to us? It is better that an insufferable life ends before it can begin. It is better to go straight to heaven than stay alive and endure the kicks and blows of the world.’ Are they wrong in saying this?
Once upon a time, people in patriarchal society would run temple to temple and pray to god for a son, they would spend extravagantly on saints and hermits, but now there is no need of magic charms and spells, a medium even stronger than god has come to India – science. Scan machines, amniocentesis and other scientific tests reveal the sex of the embryo in the womb – if the sex is not right then it is got rid of. The right sex is masculine, the wrong sex feminine. The healthy sex is masculine, the disabled sex feminine.
Girls are quickly disappearing. Anti-women traditions have been carefully preserved over the ages. There are quite a few communities, which regard sons as only offspring, and not daughters. Till 1980, infant girls used to be killed after they were born. Feticide had not caught on. Despite being banned, the incidence of feticide is on the rise. It makes one afraid that as long as the status of girls in society does not improve, there is no way these murders, this bloodshed, can be prevented.
We say, if women are educated and self-reliant, then female infanticide and female feticide will stop. Most people believe that these occur among the poor and the uneducated. But, in fact, the opposite is true. The study shows in India the ratio of girls to boys is the most skewed in South Delhi, a place where the rich and the educated live. It is here that the maximum number of girls go missing. Down from 904 to 845 in just 10 years. 24,000 girls disappear from South Delhi every year. The Patels of Gujarat are a wonder. Traditionally rich peasants, there is no trace of girls in their villages. It’s femicide, the systematic killing of women. A holocaust going on against girls across the country. A pogrom.
Sometimes I think ‘educated’ people can plan the murder of their fetuses with much more skill than uneducated people. ‘Educated’ girls can learn patriarchal system much better than uneducated girls. They sure have better learning ability. They even practice it better. Misogyny can not be wiped out through conventional education that does not teach gender equality.
Since infant girls have been murdered over the ages, female feticide today does not go against anti-women tradition. It is like weeding – plucking off girls from the soil of the womb reserved for the production of sons. There is nothing surprising about murdering daughters in a race that has always been thirsty for sons. Killing of girl children was probably in vogue from the ancient Vedic age. The Atharva Veda says, Let girls be born elsewhere, let boys take birth here. Son is wealth. Son is a blessing. The son will be the father’s strength in old age. The father will go to heaven if the son lights his funeral pyre. It is the son who will rescue the father from hell.
Female feticide is causing social imbalance. Now brothers share a wife. The murder of girls has led to such an acute shortage of girls that an exchange system has been initiated. According to this system, parents agree to give their daughter in marriage on the condition that the groom’s sister marries the bride’s brother. “Bride Trafficking” has started. Men are now ‘recycling’ the use of women for sex and reproduction.
Now a days men want educated wives. So girls are getting educated so that they can sell well in the marriage mart. An educated wife can do the shopping, pay the bills, look after the children’s studies, and solve problems at school, all on her own. A man said, my wife has a postgraduate degree in Maths, all the better since she can help the kids with the homework. So I don’t need to engage a tutor for them. And why should my wife work outside the home? We don’t need any extra money in the family. She has a lot to do at home.
The money women earn is known as extra money. University degrees are meant to help the kids with their homework, nothing else. The norm is that middle class girls will not work after marriage.Only those girls, who badly need money for survival or those girls whose money husbands want, get permission to work outside the house.
Alas! So much for education! Educated girls have to pay more dowry. The more educated a girl is, the more educated husband she demands. And thus the amount of dowry required also escalates. Many people think that a handsome dowry enhances the dignity of the girl. However, dowry never improves the status of a girl in her in-laws’ house, rather it results in loss of dignity. The more dowry is paid, the more the girl’s status at her in-laws will deteriorate. The husband is not supposed to pay dowry, no matter how educated the girl is, no matter how grand the job she holds. The ‘Brides Wanted’ column is clear testimony to the value of girls in this society. Wanted: A fair complexion, beautiful, educated, homely girl from a respectable family. ‘Homely girl’ means a girl who will spend all 24 hours of the day on domestic chores, one who will not hold a job. ‘Respectable family’ means a family that will pay a handsome dowry. If the groom comes from an affluent family, it does not mean that a poor dowry will do, rather the dowry must be all the more generous. When this is the condition, why will people not believe that the birth of a girl means entails huge expenses! Girls are an inferior race – this belief is ingrained in both men and women across India. And since a girl belongs to an inferior race, dowry is needed to get rid of her.
The abortion clinics display an advertisement. Spend Rs 500, you’ll save Rs. 50,000. In other words, kill this one. If this one lives, you’ll lose Rs. 50,000 in dowry. For those yearning for a son, the sex determination clinics are modern temples.
Women have had to struggle for decades for the right of abortion. Acquiring the right of abortion was a huge event in the history of women’s emancipation. However, when in India, a foetus is aborted by virtue of belonging to a certain gender, and that gender is the feminine gender, then such abortion has no relation whatsoever with women’s liberty, but is inseparably related with the tragedy of women’s subjugation.
The law has not been able to eradicate the dowry system. It can never be eradicated as long as every member of the family continues to believe that a girl cannot be as economically powerful as a boy. Society needs a lot of change. Society must understand that girls are very important members of the society, not burdens for whom dowry must be paid, not machines for the production of sons. If women and men do not unite in the attempt to transform society, female feticide will continue unabated.
This society is not a fit place for girls, so it is better not to allow them to be born. This logic is something like this: there is too much shouting and screaming all around, the noise pollution is giving one a headache, so it is better to chop off the head. Many claim that if women themselves choose the gender of the child before giving birth, then they will be saved from many undesired pregnancies. How helpless she must be not to have the slightest control over the fetus growing inside her womb! Women are compelled to yield to societal as well as many kinds of family pressure and opt for abort a female fetus. An undesired pregnancy is not as terrible as this forsaken, helpless, undignified, disgraceful condition of women.
If the practice of female feticide continues as they are now, it will not be very many decades before there will be not a single girl in the country, only men. The good thing will be that men will find no more girls to torture, trample, rape and kill.
”
You are an atheist but you name your children after gods or prophets or heroes and heroines of the religious scriptures. Why don’t you stop doing it?
And,
Why is it necessary to have a family name ?
Having a first name related to religion and a surname related to father or husband’s surname proves that you are a victim of the misogynistic patriarchal religious system and you do not denounce the system rather you try to keep the system intact.
I have no family name. Nasreen is not derived from my father or my grandfather or my husband nor is it derived from my mother or my grandmother. Nasreen is a Persian word which means a wild rose. I feel good for not having a patriarchal family name. I feel good for not having a given name that comes from the Koran or the Hadith. I am grateful to my parents for not having named me after Prophet Muhammad’s mother or daughter or wives.
We can live our lives happily without having a family name, but many people think that the things will be totally messed up without it. Iceland is not a messed up country. Icelandic names differ from Western family name systems. For example, a man named Gunnar Svensson has a son named Eric and a daughter named Björk. Eric’s last name will not be Svensson like his father’s; it will become Gunnarsson, literally indicating that Eric is the son of Gunnar (Gunnars + son). Björk also would not have the last name Svensson; she would have the name Gunnarsdóttir. Again, the name says that Björk is “Gunnar’s daughter” (Gunnars + dóttir). Not everybody’s surname carries father’s name, many choose to have matronymic names, instead of father’s name they pick mother’s name. For example, Eric and Björk’s mother’s name is Anika Stefánsdóttir. If parents decide or Eric and Björk want to pick their mother’s name for their last names, Eric’s last name will be Anikasson, and Björk’s last name will be Anikasdóttir. Iceland is not alone, some other countries also have a different family name system or no family name system. Who doesn’t want to be a separate human being!
I love names that come from nature. Let me translate some common names of Bengali people: Rose, Jasmine, Sky, Moon, Sun, Earth, River, Sea, Forest, Love, Wind, Soil, Flower, Peace, Beauty, Happy, Orange, Apple, Bird, Music, Poem, Strength, Rain, Smile etc. I call them true secular names.
Let’s be 100% secular.
What if the Satanic Verses about Allah having three daughters and about worshiping those three daughters as goddesses were not deleted from the Koran and al-Lat , al-Uzza and Manat were worshiped today? Would Islam have been a bit less anti-women?
I understand why men believe in religion, but I do not understand why women believe in religion. Or perhaps I understand. Either they’re ignorant or they’re masochists. No woman who lives with dignity and honor will accept humiliation and abuse of women. No woman with self-esteem worships gods that hate women . Religion demands women to be chaste and silent. Religion wants women to be obedient and submissive to their husbands. All religions treat women as inferior beings. Women should read god’s texts and get angry with god. Women should stop worshiping god.
Women pray more then men, are more likely to believe in God, and are more religious than men. Some evolutionary psychologists try to justify it. I do not agree with them. They say, ‘women are inherently more risk-averse than men’. Aren’t women constantly taking risks more than men just for living their lives? They take risks of being raped, abused and murdered when they’re at home or at workplaces or just anywhere outside! Women have always been forced to stay behind, to practice religion, and to keep the anti-women patriarchal system intact. Even during the age of Enlightenment, women were not allowed to get an education, and even though the coffeehouses for intellectual exchange were generally accessible to everyone, but that did not allow women to participate, or express their opinions. Women’s place was in the kitchen, it is still in the kitchen.
If women do not fight to stop being oppressed by a shameful patriarchal and oppressive religious system, then shame on women! Shame on women for not protesting, for not fighting, for allowing a system to continue that will affect our children as well as our children’s children. We badly need to create a gender equal society where misogyny has no place.
Let’s see what some of the religious scriptures say about women:
Women in the Bible
“A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding. These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. She is to bring two doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.” Leviticus 12: 1-8
“Women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission…”1 Corinthians 14:34
“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting to the Lord.” Colossians 3:18
Check it out:
GENESIS
2:22 Eve created from Adam’s rib.
3:16 Cursed with painful childbirth and domination by husband.
4:19 Man marries two wives.
12:13-19 Abraham prostitutes wife.
19:26 Lot’s wife turned into pillar of salt for disobeying god.
19:30-38 Lot impregnates his two daughters while drunk.
25:1-6 Keeping many concubines is OK.
EXODUS
20:17 Wife as property.
21:4 Wife and children belong to master.
21:7-11 OK to sell daughters. Female slaves can be used for sex.
Polygamy permitted. Unwanted female slaves can be set “free” without payment of money.
22:18 Kill witches.
LEVITICUS
12:1 Childbirth a sin, Women unclean after childbirth.
15:19-32 Menstruating women are unclean.
21:9 Burn daughters.
21:13-14 Priest must marry virgin, not “used” woman.
NUMBERS
1:2 Census lists only men – women do not count.
5:11-31 Fidelity test for women only.
30:1-16 Woman’s vow invalid unless approved by her father or husband.
31:17-18 Kill all except virgins. Keep virgins for yourselves.
CH 12 Miriam punished for rebuking Moses.
DEUTERONOMY
20:14 Take women, livestock as plunder.
22:13-21 Stone non-virgin bride.
22:23-24 Stone rapist and rape victim.
22:28 Rape victim must marry rapist; rape victim’s father compensated for depreciation of his property.
25:11-12 Cut woman’s hand for touching foe’s penis.
24:1-5 Man can “send” wife from HIS house. Man must not marry “used” woman.
JUDGES
5:30 Women are spoils of war.
14:20 Samson gives wife to another man.
CH 19 Concubine pack-raped and butchered.
21:10-12 Slaughtered all inc. women and children. Saved virgins for wives.
21:21 Abducted girls for wives.
2 SAMUEL
5:13 David took many wives and concubines.
CH 13 Ammon rapes his own sister.
16:21-22 Absalom sleeps with his father’s concubines.
1 KINGS
11:3 Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
2 KINGS
9:30-37 Brutal murder of Jezebel.
2 CHRONICLES
11:21 Hoards of wives and concubines.
ESTHER
CH 1-2 Queen Vashti dethroned for disobedience; setting “bad” example to all other women.
PSALMS
51:5 Sinful since conception.
127:3 Sons are heritage from god.
PROVERBS
CH 5 Beware of wicked women!
31:3 Do not waste strength on women.
ISAIAH
3:16-26 Lord punishes haughty women.
4:4 Filthy women.
13:16 Ravish wives, dash infants.
19:16 Will be like women! (insult to Egyptians)
EZEKIEL
9:6-7 Slaughter all including children.
CH 16 Prostitutes, stoning, promiscuity…
CH 23 Tale of two adulterous sisters
NAHUM
3:4… wanton lust of a harlot… prostitution… witchcraft.
3:5 I will lift your skirts over your face!
3:13… Your troops are all women. (insult to Nineveh)
MATTHEW
5:32 Husband can divorce wife for adultery.
CH 25 Sexist tale of ten virgins.
I CORINTHIANS
11:2-10… Woman created for man.
14:34 Women must be silent in churches.
EPHESIANS
5:22-24 Wives must submit to husbands in everything.
COLOSSIANS
3:18 Wives submit to husbands.
3:22 Slaves must obey masters in everything.
I TIMOTHY
2:11-15 Woman must not have authority, she must be silent. Women can be saved with childbearing.
5:9-10 Widows should be faithful to husband and must wash saints’ feet.
1 PETER
2:18 Slaves submit to masters, even masters who are harsh.
3:1 Wives submit.
3:5-6 Sarah calls husband master.
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Women in the Quran
Your women are your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like. (Sura 2:223)
The share of the male shall be twice that of a female. (Sura 4:11)
Oh! ye who believe! When ye deal with each other, in transactions involving future obligation in a fixed period of time reduce them to writing and get two witnesses out of your own men and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses so that if one of them errs the other can remind her. (Sura 2:282)
And if the husband divorces his wife (for the third time), she shall not remain his lawful wife after this (absolute) divorce, unless she marries another husband and the second husband divorces her. [In that case] there is no harm if they [the first couple] remarry .(Sura 2:230)
And forbidden to you are wedded wives of other people except those who have fallen in your hands [as prisoners of war] (Sura 4:24)
And if you be apprehensive that you will not be able to do justice to the orphans, you may marry two or three or four women whom you choose. But if you apprehend that you might not be able to do justice to them, then marry only one wife, or marry those who have fallen in your possession. (Sura 4:3)
It is not within your power to be perfectly equitable in your treatment with all your wives, even if you wish to be so; therefore, [in order to satisfy the dictates of Divine Law] do not lean towards one wife so as to leave the other in a state of suspense.(Sura 4:129)
If you fear highhandedness from your wives, remind them [of the teaching of God], then ignore them when you go to bed, then hit them. If they obey you, you have no right to act against them. God is most high and great. (Sura 4:34)
O Prophet, when you [and the believers] divorce women, divorce them for their prescribed waiting—period and count the waiting—period accurately . . . 4 And if you are in doubt about those of your women who have despaired of menstruation, (you should know that) their waiting period is three months, and the same applies to those who have not menstruated as yet. As for pregnant women, their period ends when they have delivered their burden. ( Sura 65:1,4)
Women in Hinduism
“Almighty God, you have created this womb. Women may be born somewhere else but sons should be born from this womb” – Atharva Veda 6/11/3
“O Husband protect the son to be born. Do not make him a woman” – Atharva Veda 2/3/23
‘A virtuous woman is one who dies on the funeral pyre of her dead husband’ -this one?’ –Atharva Veda (18-3-1)
“Lord Indra himself has said that a woman has very little intelligence. She cannot be taught” – Rig Veda 8/33/17
“There cannot be any friendship with a women. Her heart is more cruel than hyena” – Rig Veda 10/95/15.
”Women are without energy. They should not get a share in property. Even to the wicked they speak in feeble manner” – Yajur Veda 6/5/8/2
‘…but woman, the Sûdra(untouchable), the dog, and the black bird (the crow), are untruth: he should not look at these, lest he should mingle excellence and sin, light and darkness, truth and untruth’ –Satapatha Brahmana 14:1:1:31
‘There is no creature more sinful than women; women are blazing fire; they are poison; they are snake; they are living lies..’ Mahabharata, 13:40
‘“Men must keep their women dependent day and night, and keep under their own control those who are attached to sensory objects. Her father guards her in childhood, her husband guards her in youth, and her sons guard her in old age. A woman is never fit for independence!’‘ –Manusmrti 7:149-150
Endless. You can read more.
Women-haters beat their wives. Patriarchal culture and customs allow wife beating. Almost all religions, monotheistic or polytheistic, advise women to be submissive.
In Muslim countries wife beating manuals have been always selling well. But recently an ordinary wife beating manual, ”A Gift For Muslim Couple” caught the attention of media because it was selling in Canada, where domestic violence is considered a crime.
It is a manual to control, restrain, scold, and beat wives into submission to create a happy, healthy, and satisfying marriage; a marriage to last a lifetime.The book says, research has shown men are looking for successful methods to achieve a happy satisfying life long marriage. Absolute control of and submission by their wives is the key.
‘There are many lessons in this book–
People who demand banning of the books that criticize religion do not say a word against the book that advises men to beat their disobedient wives. The book advocates domestic violence in order to attain a life long happy marriage.
The book was a big seller in North America. Canada talks about the book.
Moderate Muslims are angry. They condemn the book for inciting violence against women. They even demand ban on the book.
The book is 100 years old. Maulavi Ashraf Ali Thanvi, the author of the book died in 1943. I like old books about prophets and religions written by early biographers and scholars. They did not try to whitewash the anti women or the anti science parts of religious scriptures or did not try to hide prophet’s dirty linen under the carpet. Today’s scholars or religious apologists interpret the ‘holy texts’ as if the author of the texts is a rational, modern,scientific and humane. They try hard to make god sounds like an advocate for equality and justice rather than an ignorant and misogynist. They do it because in the 21st century it is not politically correct to treat women as inferior beings or slaves. Religion and superstition remain where they were, only the tips and tricks for making people fool have been changing over time.
If people who believe in equality between men and women think that ”A gift for Muslim couple’ is 100 years old and it is out of time and out of place and it should be banned, then what about the book which is 1400 years old and which also asks men to beat their disobedient wives (Surah Nisa 4.34) and incite violence against women! Anybody thought of banning the Quran as well as other misogynistic religious scriptures?
I am against banning books. I want people to learn what really the religious scriptures say, how barbaric, inhuman, hateful and misogynistic those texts are! In the meantime let’s try to prevent the apologists of religion from whitewashing religion’s justification for domestic abuse and encourage people to have a scientific outlook.
[57% of boys, 53% of girls in India think wife beating is justified.]
”Religion is like a penis. It’s fine to have one and it’s fine to be proud of it, but please don’t whip it out in public and start waving it around… and PLEASE don’t try to shove it down my child’s throat.”
Taliban poisons drinking water. 150 schoolgirls were hospitalized in Afghanistan yesterday. Girls education was banned under Taliban rule (1996-2001). After girls schools are reopened, periodic attacks occur against girls, teachers and school buildings. It is not the first time Taliban poisoned girl’s school’s water, they did it before. In 2010, more than 100 schoolgirls and teachers were sickened in similar poisonings.
Taliban’s poison gas attack is well known. In August 2010 it was revealed through blood tests that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country were caused by a powerful poison gas.
Acid was thrown at the girls while they were walking to school. Taliban have been blowing up girls school in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They threaten to blow up girl’s schools if they refuse to close. Taliban wages war against girls education. They try everything to destroy girls education. They burnt down over 125 girls schools calling women’s education un-Islamic.
“Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society,” Shah Dauran, Taliban leader said. Muslim Khan, Taliban spokesman said, “Female education is against Islam. They (women and girls) are required to sit at home and not venture out.”
The relationship between religion and patriarchy is deep-rooted. Patriarchy wants woman to stay at home and to protect her chastity. A woman is nothing but her husband’s property. It is men’s responsibility to provide food for his wives and children and it is women’s duty to obey her husband. It is only recently after decades of feminist movement that women get the opportunity to go to school, to get an education, to find a job, to make money and to become economically independent.
Whenever Muslim fundamentalists flog women for wearing trousers or stone women to death for adultery,or punish girls for getting education, there are people who would say, ‘it is not real Islam’. What is real Islam? Does real Islam believe in women’s equality? Is real Islam pro-woman? If real Islam is so pro-woman, it would not have said woman was made from the rib of man (Surah Nisa 4:1) or one of her bones was crooked. If real Islam is so pro-woman, it would not ask men to beat women.( Surah Nisa 4:34) If real Islam is so pro-woman, it would not say, a male shall inherit twice as much as a female ( Surah Nisa 4:11) , and the testimony of one man would not be equal that of two women. If real Islam is so pro-woman, women would get equal rights in marriage, divorce, and child custody, it would not permit men to have four wives (Surah Nisa 4:3) and it would not reward pious men with 72 virgins in heaven and pious women with nothing but the same old husband.
The life of Khadija, the first wife of Muhammad, tells us that the status of women was quite good during pre-Islamic period. Khadija was a rich businesswoman. Women could own and run a business. She was a widow. She married Muhammad who was 15 years younger than her. She had the right to hold and inherit property and was free to enter into a nuptial contract with the person she chose. Her polygamous husband could not marry any other women as long as she was alive.
It is true that Islam is not against women having ‘religious education’ but it definitely discourages women to leave home. It says, woman’s pray at home is better than going to mosque. Woman should take the permission of her husband before going out. Evils are behind unnecessary socializing of unveiled women . Woman should not wear perfumes. Women should wait behind men. Women should not walk in the middle of the road. Wives have great duty towards their husbands. Angels curses the disobedient wife. Woman should be grateful to her husband. Women should not imitate men in dress, movements, and way of speech. Women should cover her face in the presence of strangers and men who are not her close family members.
Despite all the attacks of the religionists, women in the Muslim societies are leaving home for schools or for work, it happens not because they embrace Islamic rules, but because they disrespect Islamic rules. Like all other religions, Islam is also anti-women. Today, Islam looks more intolerant and barbaric than other religions. It is because Islamists have been preventing people from being evolved and enlightened. Time to change.
I finally found the book. A small green book. A guide. A to Z guide to all things feminist. It is called ”The Guy’s Guide to Feminism.”
I just love the book.
If you do not like to read books on feminism by women, fine. Then read this one, written by two guys, Michael Kaufman and Michael Kimmel. It’s funny. Remarkable. Straight to the point explanation how and why feminism improves men’s life.
There are fascinating pieces —
”Do you believe that women should have the right to:
Did you answer yes?
Then you better lie down. . . . You’ve probably caught feminism.
The feminist contagion has spread far and wide. It infects both women and men. Most people in North America, Europe and many parts of the rest of the world have caught it. The terrible truth is that, nowadays, most of us support these rights and actually see them as basic rights of individuals in a democracy.”
”It’s true. As that Harvard professor observed way back in 1873, when women get more education, they do have fewer babies.
It’s not because their wombs shrink.
It’s because their options grow.”
”Does feminism Virus Target men? The virus really has it in for men. doesn’t believe that male biology causes men to rape or pillage or not listen or hog the channel changer. It actually believes that men are basically good!!!! It believes that men can (and should) be ethical, emotionally present, and accountable to our values in our interactions with women — as well as with other men.
Women who’ve caught feminism not only expect men to act in honorable ways, but have a deep belief in our ability to do so.
Beware, my friend. This is very insidious stuff.”
”A minister, a rabbi, and an imam were having coffee.
The imam said, “This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.”
The minister said, “We’re all the children of Abraham.”
The rabbi said, “Yes, but which of his wives?”
The imam said, “Is that why feminists are so angry?”
The minister said, “What do you mean?”
The imam said, “They’re angry at us for several millennia of bad things that men have done.”
The minister said, “I like to tell my flock that women aren’t angry. They’re just insistent.”
The rabbi said, “What’s so wrong about a little anger? Imagine the world from their perspective.”
At that moment another friend, a Buddhist monk, arrived. They told him what they were talking about. The monk said, “See the world from women’s perspective? Well, let me start: How would you feel if every time you went out on a date, you worry you could join the one in four women who’d been sexually assaulted?”
The rabbi said, “Or what if there were people who wanted to make it illegal for you to have control over your own reproductive system?”
The imam said, “Or if you earned less for doing the same work as a man?”
The minister said, “If half the human race felt it was entitled to stare at your body or make comments about your breasts.
“And then, if you get angry, they accuse you of being a lesbian—”
“—as if that were a crime —”
“—or say how pretty you are when you’re angry.”
The four men thought about this for a moment.
“And it gets worse,” said the minister. “Imagine that you start speaking out against these daily injustices and people start telling you to lighten up. Stop taking things so seriously. It’s only a joke.”
The rabbi said, “I wouldn’t just be angry. I’d go ballistic.”
It was Friday, and the imam soon went off to Friday prayers. “Anger,” he said to the worshippers, “is a rational response to injustice. Anger can be a healthy emotion to feel, an expression that something is wrong.”
The next morning at Sabbath services, the rabbi said, “Anger can be a motivating force, an impulse to get up off your hiney and do something, to at least say this inequality is not okay.”
That afternoon, the monk said to those he had meditated with, “The problem isn’t anger, it’s finding appropriate ways to express it. Perhaps only by expressing it, can we ever let it go.”
The next morning in his sermon, the minister told his congregants, “Anger can also be coupled with a desire to change things. It can carry a belief that things can change for the better. Resigned despair is what happens when you don’t think you can change things. Anger can mean hope.”
On Monday, the four men got together again for coffee. They were joined by another friend, a Hindu priest.
The priest said, “But you’re not saying that anger is the main thing that these feminists feel.”
Now, this coffee shop had a waiter who’d been serving perfect cups of coffee for years. He’d heard the men talking the previous week and now heard this exchange. He’d often had this very discussion about women’s anger with his girlfriend, so when the priest asked whether anger was the main thing feminists felt, he didn’t hesitate to jump in.
“Excuse me,” he said, “But when a woman feels angry, perhaps she is most angry that she has to feel anything but love and trust and how it feels to be an equal in the world.”
The minister, rabbi, imam, monk, and priest nodded sagely to each other.
And that is no joke.”
Cool.
By the way, not only I bought the book, I bought a dozen of my male- friends the same T-shirts that says, “A Man of Quality Isn’t Threatened by Women’s Equality.” They love it.