Women’s Liberation, From What?

 

 

 

To answer these questions we need to go back into the past, to a time from long ago to understand the forces that have inhibited the women folk. We have to go back to a time before the advent of Christianity. To a Europe which was then a colourful collection of many pagan religions. Religions or cultures if you would like to call it, like the Nordic, the Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman, the Celtic and many others dwelled around the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman or Greco-Roman culture was a prominent culture of Europe in the early centuries of Common Era. The Romans, like the other European cultures were polytheistic. Worship of many Gods was prevalent. This included the Gods of Sun and Moon, Stars and Planets, Rains and Thunder, Seas and Water, Love and War to name a few. The Greco-Roman pantheon had Female deities like – Nike the goddess of Victory, Artemis the goddess of Moon, Athena the goddess of wisdom, Venus the goddess of beauty and love, Gaia the goddess of Earth and so on and so forth. These religions had space at the top for women. Though they were divinified, glorified and respected the Roman women did not have right to vote or rule. But they did have right to run their own businesses, factories, invest their funds, own property, create wealth and hold the position of a priestess. This was a reflection of the women of spiritual world in the real world.

 

 

But this was to change with the advent of Christianity in the 4th century. The woman was to lose her position first in the godly world and then in the mortal world. It started with the Biblical story of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve. It tells – God created Adam, and left him to wander in the Garden of Eden. But He warned Adam against eating the fruits. Later it seems, because Adam was lonely, God created Eve, the first woman, from the rib of Adam. Adam and Eve were spending their days happily in the Garden, when a serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit. Eve ate the fruit and gave it to Adam as well. The act of eating the forbidden fruit came to be known as the Original Sin. God was angry, as Adam had disobeyed Him. He cursed Adam and thereby all the men – Henceforth you shall have to toil to make a living. He also cursed Eve and all the women to come – You shall always be subordinate to man and you will have to bear the pain of child birth. Right from the beginning the woman was doomed.

 

Later in 4th century came the concept of Trinity. This was ‘inspired’ by the Roman mythological family consisting of God Zeus the King of Heavens, his Wife Hera and their son Apollo. This family of Father – Mother – Son was appropriated as Trinity – the Heavenly Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only twist in this version was that Mother goddess had no role to play, she was replaced by a male Spirit.

 

There was no place for woman in the Godly world. Neither did she have a place among those who wrote the religious books of Christianity. The patriarchal system was such that the Church had ‘Father’ and ‘Pope’ (Latin for Papa) but no Priestess-like authoritative role for a woman.

 

With the rise of Christianity, Europe plunged into Dark Ages. Science, Mathematics, Medicine, Astronomy, even Art and Games were suppressed. Any discovery or book that was contrary to the Church dogma was banned. For example the 17th century trial of Galileo by Church for proposing a Heliocentric system. Libraries were burned down. Take for instance, the destruction of the famed library of Alexandria. It’s destruction was carried out on the decree issued by the Christian Pope of Alexandria. Powerful Women were eliminated. For example the 4th century Hypatia, a woman mathematician and philosopher was lynched by a Christian mob. Or the great woman leader like the Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake. Subjugation of women, animals and nature replaced the earlier custom of their worship. Women, Animals and Nature lost their rights, respect and dignity in the new world.

 

 

After more than a thousand years of darkness, the 15th century saw the light of Renaissance. It was a rebirth of the earlier Greco-Roman culture. Over the next few centuries, this ushered in a new age of discoveries, an age of Enlightenment. It brought the people to question the hold of Roman Catholic Church on the life of people. This protest against the Church became the Protestant Movement that lead to the creation of a new less oppressive Protestant Church.

 

Yet, all this awakening did not improve the life of Women. There were debates that discussed if women were humans at all. Women also were at the receiving end of a competition between the Protestant and Catholic Church. To market itself, the Churches launched a Witch Hunting program. By condemning so called Witches to death, a Church could show that it was saving its people from Devil. It is estimated that about a Million women, from Germany, France, Switzerland and England were persecuted under the pretext of Witch Hunting. The women, who still followed age old Pagan practices of preparing medicines or predicting the future, were targeted. They were blamed for natural disasters. The witches, most of them women, were tortured to confess that they worshipped the Devil and were punished by the Church to be burnt at the stake. This practice went on until the 18th century.

 

18th century Europe was slowly coming out of the clutches of the Church and the Aristocrats and Kings and Queens. French revolution serves as a fine example of this. Through this revolution Aristocracy was dissolved, lands owned by Church were confiscated by the state, democracy was established and France was liberated! The French later gifted a ‘Statue of Liberty’ to the USA. Ironically it is a statue of a woman holding the torch of liberty, when the French woman did not have the right to vote.

 

It took the French women another 150 years of struggle to get their right to vote. In the USA and the European countries there were neither Women Parliament Members nor woman voters. This gave rise to Women’s Suffrage movement, a movement to get ‘Her’ the right to vote. In the USA, for example, the African American Men got the right to vote in 1870, this was more than hundred years after first elections. The White Women got their right to vote in 1920 and Black Women got the right to vote in 1965. It took a royal 180 years after the first elections, for the American women to get their voting rights. Britain took 220 years to give their women folk the right to vote, while Switzerland’s last canton gave its women the right to vote in 1990.

 

 

In most of European countries, abortion laws are controlled by people who are influenced by the Church philosophy. The Church prohibits abortion citing that the unborn child is an individual and has right to life. So in many places, even if a pregnancy poses risk to the health and wellbeing of the mother, an abortion is not allowed. Latest being the case in Ireland that of Dr. Savita Happalanwar. She lost her life as she was denied abortion. Her husband pleaded to abort the foetus and save the mother. But the laws of Ireland did not allow it, resulting in the death of the young mother. This event lead to wide spread protests in Ireland, that ultimately changed the laws. It was in 2013 that the laws were changed so as to allow abortion if it posed a threat to the life of the mother.

 

There were other issues as well. In England for example the practice of selling wife was prevalent until 19th century. He who could not repay his debt would sell his wife in the market place. Like a beast, a rope would be placed around her neck and she was sold to the highest bidder. Advertisements for such sales would be placed in local newspapers. Or it wasn’t until late 19th century that women could get higher education. Or on the matter of property rights, European husbands had legal authority over their wives’ savings, inheritance and property. A Swiss woman could not issue a check without the signature of her man. This was rectified only in 1985.

 

These are but a few examples that highlight the value of a woman’s life in Christian countries. The women have had to struggle for centuries together to shed the tag of ‘being subordinate to Adam’. The struggle for equality gave rise to the movements of Women Suffrage, Women Liberation, Feminist Movement, Pro-choice Movements and others.

 

Till the day dictionaries spell the word goddess with a small ‘g’ while God with a capital ‘G’; till the day the Church holds on to the belief that there is only One Male God; till the day Genesis recites that Eve is subordinate to Adam; till that day the Women’s Liberation will remain a continuous struggle.