| Status of Women Continued.... |
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| The veiled beauty is priceless, and far more respected. There is no treasure on earth greater than this. |
| (7) The position of the Christian Church until recent centuries seems to have been influenced by both the Mosaic Law and by the streams of thought that were dominant in its contemporary cultures. In their book, Marriage East and West, David and Vera Mace wrote: “Let no one suppose, either, that our Christian heritage is free of such slighting judgments. It would be hard to find anywhere a collection of more degrading references to the female sex than the early Church Fathers provide. Lecky, the famous historian, speaks of ‘these fierce incentives which form so conspicuous and so grotesque a portion of the writing of the Fathers . . . woman was represented as the door of hell, as the mother of all human ills. She should be ashamed at the very thought that she is a woman. She should live in continual penance on account of the curses she has brought upon the world. She should be ashamed of her dress, for it is the memorial of her fall. She should be especially ashamed of her beauty, for it is the most potent instrument of the devil.’ One of the most scathing of these attacks on woman is that of Tertullian: ‘Do you know that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway; you are the unsealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserters of the divine law; you are she who persuades him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.’ Not only did the church affirm the inferior status of woman, it deprived her of legal rights she had previously enjoyed.” |
| I have listed only a very few verses below that I could think of right off the top of my head, and they are very common among the christian community. These will show the status of women in the bible - from the new testament point of view. I Corinthians 11: 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head; for that is even all one as if she were shaven. I Corinthians 11:6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn; but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. I Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. I Corinthians 11: 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. I Corinthians 11:9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. I Corinthians 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. |
| Women In ISlam |
| Foundations of Spiritual and Human Equity in Islam:
In the midst of the darkness that engulfed the world, the divine revelation echoed in the wide desert of Arabia in the seventh Century with a fresh, noble, and universal message to humanity, described below. (1) According to the Holy Quran, men and women have the same human spiritual nature: O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women... (Quran, 4:1, see also 7:189, 42:11, 16:72, 32:9, and 15:29). (2) God has invested both genders with inherent dignity and has made men and women, collectively, the trustees of God on earth (see the Quran 17:70 and 2:30). (3) The Quran does not blame woman for the “fall of man,” nor does it view pregnancy and childbirth as punishments for “eating from the forbidden tree.” On the contrary, the Quran depicts Adam and Eve as equally responsible for their sin in the Garden, never singling out Eve for blame. Both repented, and both were forgiven (see the Quran 2:36-37 and 7:19-27). In fact, in one verse (Quran 20:121) Adam specifically was blamed. The Quran also esteems pregnancy and childbirth as sufficient reasons for the love and respect due to mothers from their children (Quran 31:14 and 46:15). (4) Men and women have the same religious and moral duties and responsibilities. Each human being shall face the consequences of his or her deeds:And their Lord responded to them (saying): Never will I allow to be lost the work of (any) worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another... (Quran, 3:195, see also 74:38, 16:97, 4:124, 33:35, and 57:12). (5) The Quran is quite clear about the issue of the claimed superiority or inferiority of any human, male or female. The sole basis for superiority of any person over another is piety and righteousness not gender, color, or nationality (see the Quran 49:13). |