I thought this article and the comments that follow it were were so interesting that I wanted to comment on it. It was so involved, that I decided I wouldn't be able to and that I should just repost the whole thing and add my own comments later and see what kind of comments you would offer as well.
With today's "War On Women" being such a huge national topic, I was impressed to see it presented with this kind of all-inclusive, historical consideration.
As is often the case, the reader comments are as thought provoking as the article. Read them all, you won't regret it - and you likely will find yourself confused as to where you actually stand.
It certainly makes me question the depth, accuracy and legitimacy of my own perspective.
Read on.
Losing Femininity in the Elusive Search for Kansas
Whether
male or female, and whether people realise it or not, inequality
between the sexes affects everyone's lives on a daily basis.
While women in the Middle East experience 'in your face' gender inequality, particularly in theocratic regimes like Iran - which one of your authors has direct experience of - the equivalent bias in the West has a flavor that is far more subtle and therefore far more dangerous. It's more difficult to discern the root of a problem when it is acting covertly in a way that few notice.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, how different countries respond to sexism is reflective of how their ruling elites conduct politics. A religious government in the Middle East, for example, rules with an iron fist and bluntly tells its citizens what the rules of the game are. It's overt and leaves no room for doubt as to where the authorities stand on ideology.
In the West, the situation is the opposite. The government's influence is subtle and manipulates its citizens into believing ideals (e.g. "equal rights"), all the while changing the rules to suit the purposes of those who own the government - to keep life more equal for some than others.
Cover Thyself
In countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, sexism is clearly defined by laws stating that women must cover their hair. Curious about the origins of this custom and how it became iconic in Islam, we looked it up and found one source which claimed the following:
So according to the above, observing hijab was originally a fashion statement of upper class women from that period in Iran and Syria. It was also considered important for Muhammad's wives to be distinguished by doing likewise. Most importantly, we see those ever-present "male scriptural and legal scholars", the priestly caste in societies down through the ages who have sought to control the masses through scripture and fear-based politics. Today's psychopaths in power have a dazzling array of technology at their disposal, but are really just following in the footsteps of their predecessors with the same old dogmas.
Reading about hijab on Wikipedia, we learn:
Expose Thyself
Moving from one extreme to the next, Western countries, heavily opiated as they are by materialism, have a different misogynistic flavor. Here women are objectified from a very young age. Media pop-culture promotes images of what women 'should look like' (airbrushed, doll-like and plastic) and if they don't comply, they are deemed 'not sexy' and unworthy of merit. Men viewing these unrealistic ideals begin to objectify women. And who can blame them? Women objectify themselves and each other by modeling themselves after characters from Sex and the City. Many feel that if they don't subscribe to the psychopathic ideal, then there is something wrong with them.
The Western media saturates us with sexualized images of Katy Perry (a victim of hypersexualization and infantilisation), Rihanna (a victim of abuse who maintains contact with her abuser) and Kim Kardashian, whose claim to fame is supposedly a sex tape. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why children believe this is normal behavior and can be found modeling the behaviors and dress code of those in popular culture when they are toddlers. There are even reality shows featuring children that are little more than TV programs for pedophiles.
Somehow, this has all been fashioned into an image that is representative of what a woman is or should be - childlike and sexually available so as to not be threatening and, at the same time, aspiring to be more masculine by chasing after what men 'have'. It seems that women are just as clueless as men when it comes to discerning what it means to embrace femininity and true empowerment. In their quest to find themselves, many turn to ideological constructs devised by those who claim to have special knowledge. Unfortunately, it's often a case of the blind leading the lame.
Feminine Empowerment as a New Age Religion
While women in the Middle East experience 'in your face' gender inequality, particularly in theocratic regimes like Iran - which one of your authors has direct experience of - the equivalent bias in the West has a flavor that is far more subtle and therefore far more dangerous. It's more difficult to discern the root of a problem when it is acting covertly in a way that few notice.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, how different countries respond to sexism is reflective of how their ruling elites conduct politics. A religious government in the Middle East, for example, rules with an iron fist and bluntly tells its citizens what the rules of the game are. It's overt and leaves no room for doubt as to where the authorities stand on ideology.
In the West, the situation is the opposite. The government's influence is subtle and manipulates its citizens into believing ideals (e.g. "equal rights"), all the while changing the rules to suit the purposes of those who own the government - to keep life more equal for some than others.
Cover Thyself
In countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, sexism is clearly defined by laws stating that women must cover their hair. Curious about the origins of this custom and how it became iconic in Islam, we looked it up and found one source which claimed the following:
Although long seen as the most distinctive emblem of Islam, the veil is, surprisingly, not enjoined upon Muslim women anywhere in the Quran. The tradition of veiling and seclusion (known together as hijab) was introduced into Arabia long before Muhammad, primarily through Arab contacts with Syria and Iran, where the hijab was a sign of social status. After all, only a woman who need not work in the fields could afford to remain secluded and veiled.Hmmm, isn't that interesting?
In the Ummah, there was no tradition of veiling until around 627 C.E., when the so-called "verse of hijab" suddenly descended upon the community. That verse, however, was addressed not to women in general, but exclusively to Muhammad's wives:
"Believers, do not enter the Prophet's house...unless asked. And if you are invited...do not linger. And when you ask something from the Prophet's wives, do so from behind a hijab. This will assure the purity of your hearts as well as theirs" (33:53).This restriction makes perfect sense when one recalls that Muhammad's house was also the community's mosque: the center of religious and social life in the Ummah. People were constantly coming in and out of this compound at all hours of the day. When delegations from other tribes came to speak with Muhammad, they would set up their tents for days at a time inside the open courtyard, just a few feet away from the apartments in which Muhammad's wives slept. And new emigrants who arrived in Yathrib would often stay within the mosque's walls until they could find suitable homes.
When Muhammad was little more than a tribal Shaykh, this constant commotion could be tolerated. But by 627 C.E., when he had become the supremely powerful leader of an increasingly expanding community, some kind of segregation had to be enforced to maintain the inviolability of his wives. Thus, the tradition, borrowed from the upper classes of Iranian and Syrian women, of veiling and secluding the most important women in society from the peering eyes of everyone else.
That the veil applied solely to Muhammad's wives is further demonstrated by the fact that the term for donning the veil, darabat al-hijab, was used synonymously and interchangeably with "becoming Muhammad's wife." For this reason, during the Prophet's lifetime, no other women in the Ummah observed hijab. Of course, modesty was enjoined on all believers, and women in particular were instructed to
"draw their clothes around them a little to be recognized as believers and so that no harm will come to them" (33:60).More specifically, women should
"guard their private parts...and drape a cover (khamr) over their breasts" when in the presence of strange men (24:31-32).But, as Leila Ahmed observes, nowhere in the whole of the Quran is the term hijab applied to any woman other than the wives of Muhammad.
It is difficult to say with certainty when the veil was adopted by the rest of the Ummah, though it was most likely long after Muhammad's death. Muslim women probably began wearing the veil as a way to emulate the Prophet's wives, who were revered as "the Mothers of the Ummah." But the veil was neither compulsory, nor for that matter, widely adopted until generations after Muhammad's death, when a large body of male scriptural and legal scholars began using their religious and political authority to regain the dominance they had lost in society as a result of the Prophet's egalitarian reforms.
So according to the above, observing hijab was originally a fashion statement of upper class women from that period in Iran and Syria. It was also considered important for Muhammad's wives to be distinguished by doing likewise. Most importantly, we see those ever-present "male scriptural and legal scholars", the priestly caste in societies down through the ages who have sought to control the masses through scripture and fear-based politics. Today's psychopaths in power have a dazzling array of technology at their disposal, but are really just following in the footsteps of their predecessors with the same old dogmas.
Reading about hijab on Wikipedia, we learn:
The Qur'an instructs both Muslim men and women to dress in a modest way.The clearest verse on the requirement of the hijab is surah 24:30 - 31, asking women to draw their khimār over their bosoms.[9][10]This mandatory rule that all women wear the hijab has resulted in a low-level but persistent climate of terror that is enforced by 'moral police' in Islamic countries. It not only shows their lack of respect for women, but for men also. In short, it shows their contempt for humanity. Women are effectively ordered to cover themselves from the prying eyes of men. Why? Because the religious zealots believe that at root all women are 'temptresses' and that men haven't an iota of self-control. Surely a normal man would be insulted by such a notion; that all women would have to cover themselves in his presence because he has no self-discipline? Coercing half the human race to hide themselves from the world clearly demonstrates the pathological influence running through extreme variants of Islamic government, which place the responsibility for all of society's actions on women. In a bizarre twist, because they are being told what to wear, women are therefore treated like children and men, like 'good' sons, unquestioningly and dutifully accept their prescribed role as 'babysitters'.
And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. (Quran 24:31)In the following verse, Muslim women are asked to draw their jilbab over them (when they go out), as a measure to distinguish themselves from others, so that they are not harassed. Surah 33:59 reads:[10]
Those who harass believing men and believing women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a grievous sin. O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed. [...] (Quran 33:58 - 59)
Expose Thyself
Moving from one extreme to the next, Western countries, heavily opiated as they are by materialism, have a different misogynistic flavor. Here women are objectified from a very young age. Media pop-culture promotes images of what women 'should look like' (airbrushed, doll-like and plastic) and if they don't comply, they are deemed 'not sexy' and unworthy of merit. Men viewing these unrealistic ideals begin to objectify women. And who can blame them? Women objectify themselves and each other by modeling themselves after characters from Sex and the City. Many feel that if they don't subscribe to the psychopathic ideal, then there is something wrong with them.
The Western media saturates us with sexualized images of Katy Perry (a victim of hypersexualization and infantilisation), Rihanna (a victim of abuse who maintains contact with her abuser) and Kim Kardashian, whose claim to fame is supposedly a sex tape. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why children believe this is normal behavior and can be found modeling the behaviors and dress code of those in popular culture when they are toddlers. There are even reality shows featuring children that are little more than TV programs for pedophiles.
Somehow, this has all been fashioned into an image that is representative of what a woman is or should be - childlike and sexually available so as to not be threatening and, at the same time, aspiring to be more masculine by chasing after what men 'have'. It seems that women are just as clueless as men when it comes to discerning what it means to embrace femininity and true empowerment. In their quest to find themselves, many turn to ideological constructs devised by those who claim to have special knowledge. Unfortunately, it's often a case of the blind leading the lame.
Feminine Empowerment as a New Age Religion
Beware of disinformation. It diverts your attention away from reality thus leaving you open to capture and conquest and even possible destruction. - Adventures with Cassiopaea; Transcript 11-19-94An example of the insidious ways women are programmed to objectify themselves in the West comes courtesy of an 'exercise' program involving pole-dancing which supposedly "does wonders". It's called S Factor. We looked it up and were appalled by how misogynistic it seemed:
[I have to admit - I didn't find the video "misogynistic"? It looked like great exercise in appropriate attire and I wasn't sexually stimulated in the least by watching it. I wish I could do that kind of exercise! Maybe all gymnastics (male and female) are also misogynistic? Maybe I'm just a misogynist! - Doc]
From the site about the creator of 'S Factor', we read that:
Sheila Kelley is the global 'femme' leader, author, and originator of pole dance fitness and feminine movement for the empowerment of women. She is an esteemed actress, filmmaker, dancer, and a passionate voice for the advancement of women in the world.So Sheila Kelley, who has anointed herself "global femme leader" after starring in a movie about strippers, created a fitness program utilizing pole-dancing. Doesn't that seem a little messed up to anyone?
When Sheila starred in and produced the film, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, she needed to prepare for the role of "Stormy" by learning how to striptease and pole dance. As a result, her body became long, lean and fit. She decided to take her knowledge of ballet, exercise and exotic dancing, and combine them into the most effective fitness workout ever devised for and about women - S Factor.
"S Factor was born when I discovered my sensual power and the best body of my life while preparing for my role as an exotic dancer," says Sheila. "My life changed so profoundly just from moving in this organically feminine way, that I've dedicated myself to sharing this extraordinary journey with other women."
Sheila was a classically trained dancer and soloist with the Westmoreland Ballet Company at the age of fifteen. She attended New York University's famed Tisch School of Arts as a Dance major. She is the author of, The S Factor: Strip Workouts for Every Woman, and she has six S Factor exercise DVDs. Sheila's many television (including Gossip Girl, Lost, L.A. Law, Sisters, ER and The Sopranos) and film roles (including Singles, Matchstick Men, Nurse Betty and One Fine Day) have earned her great respect in Hollywood and around the world as an actress who is not afraid of embracing the power of her femininity. She is married to actor, Richard Schiff of The West Wing, and has two children, Gus and Ruby
How does someone who is a "passionate voice for advancement of women in the world" come up with such an idea? Doesn't she realize that women strip mainly for economic reasons because working at a fast food joint just doesn't pay the rent? Perhaps Kelley realized she was better off teaching women how to move "in this organically feminine way" and to embrace "the power of femininity" than to work in some dive or wait tables like many aspiring actresses. So while she glorifies the lifestyle, she's smart enough to know she doesn't want to live it.
The problem here is that stripping for men feeds into the West's socio-pathological notions of "counterfeit intimacy" and the illusion of power via an "egalitarian motif"(pdf) - the fallacy that stripping is a liberating experience. Kelley has taken the idea of stripping, a lifestyle that most people do not find glamorous, and is attempting to make it cool.
Calhoun, Fisher and Cannon (1998) found that there was an "egalitarian motif" in place in the stripping context. This means that the club is trying to make it appear as though the amateur strip contest is a liberating experience for men and women, but the reality is that it's "fun" for men and "alienating" and oppressive for women. Their analysis showed that these women competing in these contests are actually being manipulated by the male owners to gain profit for themselves.Subverting the Feminine
~ 'Motivations of Professional Strippers', Lisa Monchalin, 2006, p.10
We encourage everyone to read an article by Thomas Sheridan, author of Puzzling People, entitled 'The "Empowered" Whore Archetype Destroying the Feminine'. It's short, concise and touches on the crucial issue; psychopathic control that has turned society into its pathological offspring.
The "empowered whore archetype" is exactly what Sheila Kelley and the Western media propagate. We should be questioning, not praising, Shelia Kelley's claims to be a feminist concerned with the advancement of women. In reality, 'S Factor' is everything most true feminists detest. It's not a program that inspires women to "embrace their femininity". Rather, like so many others, it distorts the idea of what it IS to be a woman.
Unfortunately, Kelley is far from alone in her illusion. There are thousands of false prophets like her and an even greater number of desperate people latching onto their ideas. These disinformation programs run the gamut from fitness to reality TV shows to non-profit organizations, all promoted under the guise of women's liberation and equality.
Ultimately, the 'femme movement' contributes only to keeping women in their place. When did "getting in touch with one's feminine side" devolve into promoting seedy activities as positive acts of self-empowerment? Aren't hanging out at strip joints and paying women for sex both things that men are condemned for doing? Well, maybe once upon a time. Today there are male strip joints where women can go and act just as depraved as men do, objectifying men in the same manner they are subjected to.
Since when did degrading and making a spectacle of oneself in public become synonymous with self-respect? When did self-expression of the feminine and creative aspect of ourselves (whether male or female) become twisted, filled with contempt and seen as weak? Is this downward spiral masquerading as upward self-empowerment something that anyone really wants to be associated with? Why is it that qualities such as caring, nurturing, growth, creation and vulnerability - towards others as well as self - are seen as unworthy? It seems to us that a whole lot of people need a serious reality check!
Something is very wrong with this picture. When women refer to themselves as sl**s, b*****s and wh***s, what is it that's really going on? Some skewed misconception of 'taking back' the meaning of those words? We've known women who proudly carry these labels and then wonder why others think so little of themselves. Perhaps they believe they will feel less hurt if they insult themselves before someone else gets a chance to, but all it really accomplishes is a perpetuating cycle of self-abuse and signals to the rest of society that this is 'normal' and 'acceptable'. It's not. It's indicative of a serious social disease. People forget that their very thoughts and language are the seeds that influence their behavior and actions.
The True Power of the Feminine Divine and The Darkness that Shadows it
"It seems that there were ancient societies organized very differently from ours, and chief among the finds in such digs are the many images of the Deity as female. Thus we are better able to interpret the references to the Great Goddess in ancient art, myth and even historical writings.Rape and violence against women all over the world is the most extreme consequence of empowerment of the 'whore archetype'. In a recent report from South Africa about a gang-rape video that went viral, CNN noted that:
The chief idea of these people was that the Universe was an all-giving mother. Indeed, this idea has survived in our time. In China, the female deities Ma Tsu and Kuan Yin are still widely worshiped as beneficent and compassionate goddesses. Similarly, the veneration of Mary, the Mother of God, is widespread.
Even if in Catholic theology she is demoted to non-divine status, her divinity is implicitly recognized by her appellation "Mother of God", as well as by the prayers of millions who daily seek her compassionate protection and solace. In fact, the story of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection seems to be little more than a reworking of those earlier 'mystery cults' revolving around a Divine Mother and her son or, as in the worship of Demeter and Kore, her daughter.
It is of course, reasonable that the deepest understanding of divine power in human form should be female rather than male. After all, life emerges from the body of a woman, and if we are to understand the macrocosm by means of the microcosm, it is only natural to think of the Universe as an all giving Mother from whose womb all life emerges and to which, like the cycles of vegetation, it returns after death to be again reborn.
What's more important to us here is the idea that societies that view the universe as a Mother would also have very different social structures from our own. We might also conjecture that women in such a society would not be seen as subservient. Caring, nurturing, growth and creation would have been valued. At the same time, it does not make sense to think that such societies were "matriarchal" in the sense that women dominated men. They were, instead, by all the evidence, societies in which differences were valued and not equated as evidence of either superiority or inferiority."
~ Laura Knight-Jadczyk, The Secret History of the World, pages 492 - 493
NGOs estimate a woman is raped every 26 seconds in the country.That is a frightful number. Why are such things occurring on our planet at such a high rate? What will the future look like if things keep going the way they are?
Thinking about this further, it's as if the planet has been turned into a breeding ground for psychopaths. Let's say that women conceiving as a result of rape give birth to children born with psychopathic genes. That means more offspring of these 'loveless unions' will go on to father children who in turn are incapable of caring for their children, raised without fatherly guidance and most likely undesired and unloved by their mother. Even if the children don't inherit psychopathic genes, they are more susceptible to developing serious character flaws and will likely become sociopaths.
That is why abuse of sex is another 'tool' with which psychopaths shape society in their image, spiraling us towards devolution. Most of us as young children did not learn about sex in the context of healthy relationships. Bombarded with sexual imagery from a very young age, children growing up in the West today aren't just exposed to crass magazines and TV shows (although they don't help); they're exposed to hardcore pornography, which is extremely damaging, demeans sex, objectifies women and gives men a horrific image of women.
Whether in 'developed' or 'developing' countries, high rape statistics seem to go hand in hand with other forms of predatory violence. Is it any surprise, when you think of how we treat the planet and everyone on it that women and children are also being subjected to unbearable suffering in such high numbers? Together we have been raping the planet in every way imaginable, destroying oceans and rainforests. Entire cultures have been raped with 'shock and awe' and 'humanitarian war' by the same psychopaths on Wall Street raping us all economically.
Such is the 'natural' result of a ponerized society that has become so filled with hate towards the Feminine. We've all been seriously misled by a psychopathic elite, ruling us through our fears so that we'll do their bidding. One of men's greatest fears is to be perceived as anything even remotely feminine and to strive, by any means possible, to present themselves as the antithesis - even to their own detriment. Those that attempt to be themselves may quickly find they are without societal acceptance and the very valid need for love. Women, in their attempt to eke out some power in a power-hungry world, search outside of themselves, unaware that not only is the power they seek an illusion (because men never really had it themselves), they also fail to recognize their own innate gifts. Men and women seeking true empowerment would do well to heed the timeless wisdom given to Dorothy as she tried to find her way back home in The Wiz remake of the Wizard of Oz:
Glinda the Good: Hello, Dorothy.In spiritual terms, one could argue, the soul is all that matters and the body is 'just' a vessel in which the soul is placed. If we try to keep this in mind, then gender issues take a back seat to larger soul lessons that can be learned during our 'time' on Earth. When viewed from an objective perspective, one can utilize these lessons to heal. If there is a purpose to life, then whether you are male or female is for the most part irrelevant as it only serves to distract you from achieving your full potential and purpose as a human being.
Dorothy: Please, is there a way for me to get back home?
Glinda the Good: Well, Dorothy, you were wise and good enough to help your friends to come here and find what was inside them all the time. That's true for you, also.
Dorothy: Home? Inside of me? I don't understand.
Glinda the Good: Home is a place we all must find, child. It's not just a place where you eat or sleep. Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage. If we know ourselves, we're always home, anywhere.
Unfortunately, in our world, the abiding sense of purpose that many individuals innately feel rarely finds healthy expression. Much of this is due to the centuries-long stranglehold of psychopathic influence, where a thirst for power over others stifles and distorts healthy reasoning. Through religious indoctrination and now the mainstream media, people are brainwashed into believing that materiality - particularly as it relates to one's physical appearance - is the standard bearer for what it is to be human, and so they remain incapable of rising above and beyond inequality in all its forms - between the sexes, between races and between classes.
Ultimately, whether you are struggling to cope with the influence of puritanical zealots or debauched social memes, people of both genders and all races are confined by the limits instilled in us by pathological types. In turn, we believe in the lies they tell us and enforce these same limits on ourselves. While speaking out for women oppressed by mad mullahs in faraway lands, women in the West should take a long hard look at what feminism has become over the years. Those who are sincere in their struggle for the right of women to be seen for who they truly are, and for what they can truly be, must understand that the movement has been co-opted by the Powers That Be. It's time to take a deeper look at what we've all become and place the blame where it truly lies. We've all had our role to play in this, so the problem isn't with men. It also isn't with women. The problem lies with our shared intraspecies predator - psychopaths, which are neither men nor women - who seek to control any and all manifestation of creative expression by dragging everything down with them to the lowest common denominator and into the depths of entropy. Only by disentangling ourselves from their hold on our beliefs can we begin to contemplate any restoration of the divine feminine.
Reader Comments
"how can any human being be serious about monotheism of any description?"
Rhetoric answer to a rhetoric question.
"Because God said so..."
Rhetoric answer to a rhetoric question.
"Because God said so..."
"Because God said so..."
hahahaha... Luke, good one, but the crazy thing is someone somewhere will probably answer like that.
hahahaha... Luke, good one, but the crazy thing is someone somewhere will probably answer like that.
[Quran 7:26] "O children of Adam, we have provided you with
garments to cover your bodies, as well as for luxury. But the best
garment is the garment of righteousness. These are some of God's signs,
that they may take heed."
^^This is the BASIC rule of DRESS CODE in the Quran.
The second rule can be found in 24:31. Here God orders the women to cover their bosoms whenever they dress up.
24:31 -- And tell the believing women to subdue their eyes, and maintain their chastity. They shall not reveal any parts of their bodies, except that which is necessary. They shall cover their chests, and shall not relax this code in the presence of other than their husbands, their fathers, the fathers of their husbands, their sons, the sons of their husbands, their brothers, the sons of their brothers, the sons of their sisters, other women, the male servants or employees whose sexual drive has been nullified, or the children who have not reached puberty. They shall not strike their feet when they walk in order to shake and reveal certain details of their bodies. All of you shall repent to God, O you believers, that you may succeed.
THE WORD "HIJAB" in the QURAN:
"Hijab" is the term used by many Muslims women to describe their head cover that may or may not include covering their face except their eyes, and sometimes covering also one eye. The Arabic word "Hijab" can be translated into veil or yashmak. Other meanings for the word "Hijab" include, screen, cover(ing), mantle, curtain, drapes, partition, division, divider.
Can we find the word "Hijab" in the Quran??
The word "Hijab" appeared in the Quran 7 times, five of them as "Hijab" and two times as "Hijaban," these are 7:46, 33:53, 38:32, 41:5, 42:51, 17:45 & 19:17.
None of these "Hijab" words are used in the Quran in reference to what the traditional Muslims call today (Hijab) as a dress code for the Muslim woman.
God knows that generations after Muhammed's death the Muslims will use the word "Hijab" to invent a dress code that He never authorized. God used the word "Hijab" ahead of them just as He used the word "Hadith" ahead of them.
Hijab in the Quran has nothing to do with the Muslim Women dress code.
In 24:31 God is asking the women to use their cover (khimar)( being a dress, a coat, a shawl, a shirt, a blouse, a tie, a scarf . . . etc.) to cover their bosoms, not their heads or their hairs. If God so willed to order the women to cover their heads or their hair, nothing would have prevented Him from doing so. God does not run out of words. God does not forget. God did not order the women to cover their heads or their hair.
God does not wait for a Scholar to put the correct words for Him!
[Quran 24:31] They shall not reveal any parts of their bodies, except that which is necessary.
^^^^This expression may sound vague to many because they have not understood the mercy of God. Again God here used this very general term to give us the freedom to decide according to our own circumstances the definition of "What is necessary".
It is NOT up to a scholar or to any particular person to define this term. God wants to leave it personal for every woman and no one can take it away from her. Women who follow the basic rule number one i.e. righteousness, will have no problem making the right decision to reveal only which is necessary.
Accepting orders from anybody but God, means idol-worship. That is how serious the matter of Hijab/khimar is. Women who wear Hijab because of tradition or because they like it for personal reasons commit no sin, as long as they know that it is not part of this perfect religion. Those who are wearing it because they think God ordered it are committing Idol-worship, as God did not order it, the scholars did. These women have found for themselves another god than the One who revealed the Quran, complete, perfect and FULLY detailed to tell them they have to cover their heads to be Muslims.
Idol-worship is the only unforgivable sin, if maintained till death, 4:48.
[Quran 33:59] O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the wives of the believers that they shall LENGTHEN their garments. Thus, they will be recognized and avoid being insulted. God is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
^^^^In 33:59, God sets the other regulation for the dress code for the Muslim women during the prophet's life.
Although the verse is talking to the prophet which means this regulation applies to the time of the prophet, just like the order in 49:2, the description fits the spirit of Islam (Submission in English), and can teach us a great deal.
If you reflect on this verse and how God ordered the prophet to tell his wives, his daughters and the wives of the believers to lengthen their garments, you would understand the great wisdom of the MOST WISE, the MOST MERCIFUL. In this verse, God, DELIBERATELY, (and all the TRUE believers know that everything God says, does, or did is DELIBERATE) said, tell them, to lengthen their garments, and never said how long is long. God could have said tell them to lengthen their garments to their ankles or to their mid-calf or to their knees, but HE DID NOT. He did not, OUT OF HIS MERCY, not because HE FORGOT as God does not forget. God knows that we will be living in different communities and have different cultures and insists that the minor details of this dress code will be left for the people of every community to hammer for themselves.
It is clear from the above verses that the DRESS CODE for the Muslim women (Submitters) according to the Quran is righteousness and modesty. God knows that this modesty will be understood differently in different communities and that is why He left it open to us to decide for ourselves. Decide, after righteousness what is modesty. Modesty for a woman who lives in New York may not be accepted by a woman who lives in Cairo Egypt. Modesty of a woman who lives in Cairo, Egypt may not be accepted by a woman who lives in Saudi Arabia.
Modesty of a woman who lives in Jidda in Saudi Arabia may not be accepted by a woman who lives in a desert oasis in the same country. This difference in the way we perceive modesty is well known to God, He created us, and He put NO hardship on us in this great religion. He left it to us to decide what modesty would be. For any person, knowledgeable or not to draw a line and make conclusion for God about the definition of modesty is to admit that he/she knows better than God.
God left it open for us and no-one has the authority to restrict it, it has to stay open.
Thank you and God bless you.
^^This is the BASIC rule of DRESS CODE in the Quran.
The second rule can be found in 24:31. Here God orders the women to cover their bosoms whenever they dress up.
24:31 -- And tell the believing women to subdue their eyes, and maintain their chastity. They shall not reveal any parts of their bodies, except that which is necessary. They shall cover their chests, and shall not relax this code in the presence of other than their husbands, their fathers, the fathers of their husbands, their sons, the sons of their husbands, their brothers, the sons of their brothers, the sons of their sisters, other women, the male servants or employees whose sexual drive has been nullified, or the children who have not reached puberty. They shall not strike their feet when they walk in order to shake and reveal certain details of their bodies. All of you shall repent to God, O you believers, that you may succeed.
THE WORD "HIJAB" in the QURAN:
"Hijab" is the term used by many Muslims women to describe their head cover that may or may not include covering their face except their eyes, and sometimes covering also one eye. The Arabic word "Hijab" can be translated into veil or yashmak. Other meanings for the word "Hijab" include, screen, cover(ing), mantle, curtain, drapes, partition, division, divider.
Can we find the word "Hijab" in the Quran??
The word "Hijab" appeared in the Quran 7 times, five of them as "Hijab" and two times as "Hijaban," these are 7:46, 33:53, 38:32, 41:5, 42:51, 17:45 & 19:17.
None of these "Hijab" words are used in the Quran in reference to what the traditional Muslims call today (Hijab) as a dress code for the Muslim woman.
God knows that generations after Muhammed's death the Muslims will use the word "Hijab" to invent a dress code that He never authorized. God used the word "Hijab" ahead of them just as He used the word "Hadith" ahead of them.
Hijab in the Quran has nothing to do with the Muslim Women dress code.
In 24:31 God is asking the women to use their cover (khimar)( being a dress, a coat, a shawl, a shirt, a blouse, a tie, a scarf . . . etc.) to cover their bosoms, not their heads or their hairs. If God so willed to order the women to cover their heads or their hair, nothing would have prevented Him from doing so. God does not run out of words. God does not forget. God did not order the women to cover their heads or their hair.
God does not wait for a Scholar to put the correct words for Him!
[Quran 24:31] They shall not reveal any parts of their bodies, except that which is necessary.
^^^^This expression may sound vague to many because they have not understood the mercy of God. Again God here used this very general term to give us the freedom to decide according to our own circumstances the definition of "What is necessary".
It is NOT up to a scholar or to any particular person to define this term. God wants to leave it personal for every woman and no one can take it away from her. Women who follow the basic rule number one i.e. righteousness, will have no problem making the right decision to reveal only which is necessary.
Accepting orders from anybody but God, means idol-worship. That is how serious the matter of Hijab/khimar is. Women who wear Hijab because of tradition or because they like it for personal reasons commit no sin, as long as they know that it is not part of this perfect religion. Those who are wearing it because they think God ordered it are committing Idol-worship, as God did not order it, the scholars did. These women have found for themselves another god than the One who revealed the Quran, complete, perfect and FULLY detailed to tell them they have to cover their heads to be Muslims.
Idol-worship is the only unforgivable sin, if maintained till death, 4:48.
[Quran 33:59] O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the wives of the believers that they shall LENGTHEN their garments. Thus, they will be recognized and avoid being insulted. God is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
^^^^In 33:59, God sets the other regulation for the dress code for the Muslim women during the prophet's life.
Although the verse is talking to the prophet which means this regulation applies to the time of the prophet, just like the order in 49:2, the description fits the spirit of Islam (Submission in English), and can teach us a great deal.
If you reflect on this verse and how God ordered the prophet to tell his wives, his daughters and the wives of the believers to lengthen their garments, you would understand the great wisdom of the MOST WISE, the MOST MERCIFUL. In this verse, God, DELIBERATELY, (and all the TRUE believers know that everything God says, does, or did is DELIBERATE) said, tell them, to lengthen their garments, and never said how long is long. God could have said tell them to lengthen their garments to their ankles or to their mid-calf or to their knees, but HE DID NOT. He did not, OUT OF HIS MERCY, not because HE FORGOT as God does not forget. God knows that we will be living in different communities and have different cultures and insists that the minor details of this dress code will be left for the people of every community to hammer for themselves.
It is clear from the above verses that the DRESS CODE for the Muslim women (Submitters) according to the Quran is righteousness and modesty. God knows that this modesty will be understood differently in different communities and that is why He left it open to us to decide for ourselves. Decide, after righteousness what is modesty. Modesty for a woman who lives in New York may not be accepted by a woman who lives in Cairo Egypt. Modesty of a woman who lives in Cairo, Egypt may not be accepted by a woman who lives in Saudi Arabia.
Modesty of a woman who lives in Jidda in Saudi Arabia may not be accepted by a woman who lives in a desert oasis in the same country. This difference in the way we perceive modesty is well known to God, He created us, and He put NO hardship on us in this great religion. He left it to us to decide what modesty would be. For any person, knowledgeable or not to draw a line and make conclusion for God about the definition of modesty is to admit that he/she knows better than God.
God left it open for us and no-one has the authority to restrict it, it has to stay open.
Thank you and God bless you.
God bless you too.
Still, whoever puts an equation mark between revelation from Mohammad and revelation from God, will find he was wrong.
To the Code of Dress - there is one dress given by God to all of us and it is our skin. Telling that There is some Dress Code from God, including this or that piece of cloth, is a pure blasphemy against God creation. There is nothing wrong to dress yourself same as there is nothing wrong to walk completely undressed.
Our filthy hearts made us to force each other to dress ourselves, not the God. So stop spreading this blasphemic bullshit. Whoever is insulted by naked body, is insulted by God´s creation and there is no place for such a man or woman in His Kingdom.
Still, whoever puts an equation mark between revelation from Mohammad and revelation from God, will find he was wrong.
To the Code of Dress - there is one dress given by God to all of us and it is our skin. Telling that There is some Dress Code from God, including this or that piece of cloth, is a pure blasphemy against God creation. There is nothing wrong to dress yourself same as there is nothing wrong to walk completely undressed.
Our filthy hearts made us to force each other to dress ourselves, not the God. So stop spreading this blasphemic bullshit. Whoever is insulted by naked body, is insulted by God´s creation and there is no place for such a man or woman in His Kingdom.
So stop spreading this "blasphemic bullshit."
Take cover and wait for the fireworks.
Take cover and wait for the fireworks.
PS: the hadiths are not a revelation from God, they are NOT part of the Quran.
The Misconception of following Hadith and Sunna (sayings and practices traditionally and falsely attributed to Prophet Muhammad) = [Link]
The Misconception of following Hadith and Sunna (sayings and practices traditionally and falsely attributed to Prophet Muhammad) = [Link]
Shows the extreme of both ends. Cover ----------- Expose.
Searching the term Purdah: Wiki says the following cultures practised or still practise it: Persia, Greece and Byzantium, India, The Arab and Islamic world.
Another term that is very disturbing is sati: was a religious funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman would have immolated herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.
I hear in south east asia they also had some practices that most women would find very appalling nowadays.
[Link]
"Even today, many married women still call their husbands shujin (master), send their daughters to charm school to learn how to be good wives and have no ambition to enter the world of overworked, stressed out salarymen. The ideal woman in the eyes of many is still the self-sacrificing “good wife, wise mother.” Child rearing is still regarded as the primary duty of women. Housekeeping is also important. Women are expected to do the cleaning and cooking and in many cases peel apples, get cigarettes and make coffee on the demands of their husbands.
Outdated views of women endure in the highest levels of government. In January 2007, Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare minister Hakuo Yanagisawa was widely condemned when he called women “birth-giving machines” in a speech on the declining birth rate.
Japanese women are very much into "cuteness" (kawaii): Mickey Mouse, Poohsan (Winne the Pooh) and Hello Kitty are all very popular among women.
Japanese women who work as elevator operators, phone operators, office ladies and saleswomen sometimes talk in an unnaturally high voice that some Japanese regard as cute, polite and feminine but some Westerners and other Japanese find irritating. "
Then there is this which I inadvertently came across whilst checking on that Swedish cake incident where sadly due to the artists lack of artistry the issue diverted from female genital mutilation to *cough cough* racism..
[Link]
[Reader Discretion Highly Advised]
"Following the controversy, Linde stated, “I didn’t intend for anyone to feel embarrassed. But we’re talking about female genital mutilation—is there any comfortable or cozy way to talk about it?”
Yes there is—let me do so right now.
I was vaginally infibulated in Omdurman, Sudan soon after my birth. Infibulation in my region of Africa in 1969 meant that the muscles inside the vagina were cut loose and reconfigured ‘tighter’ (supposedly to incur ‘purity’ as the Mullahs claimed that the Koran states: “Woman is Impure”). After the tightening process, the vagina is stitched shut—you grow up having your period through a straw—which can take some women an entire month. On the outer lips of the vagina, seared in Arabic, they put the name of your father and his mosque on the left side—the right side of my vagina was left blank for the name of my future husband to be seared on with a hot poker later. My clitoris was not removed, because my birth mother was an Oromo, not a Muslim and wouldn’t allow what Arab Muslims call ‘the worm of unclean thoughts’ to be cut away. Thus I cannot speak on the horror of having no feeling, no clitoris. But protocol follows that years after this ritual—at your wedding ceremony, the groom is given a small razor. This is to slit you open so he can begin penetrating you on the ‘wedding bed’—a process that can take weeks."
That story is especially tragic because afterwards the victim went on to embrace the western whore archetype... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, double whammy.
All in all I think it is safe to say islamic and asian cultures might possibly mistreat their women abit more so than other areas.
One wonders where all this stuff came from... Maybe in the future one will wonder where the new form of female abuse, "The Wholescale Whore Archetype" came from. Seriously, where has it come from? Kind of just snuck in there and is now accepted as the antidote...
Searching the term Purdah: Wiki says the following cultures practised or still practise it: Persia, Greece and Byzantium, India, The Arab and Islamic world.
Another term that is very disturbing is sati: was a religious funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman would have immolated herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.
I hear in south east asia they also had some practices that most women would find very appalling nowadays.
[Link]
"Even today, many married women still call their husbands shujin (master), send their daughters to charm school to learn how to be good wives and have no ambition to enter the world of overworked, stressed out salarymen. The ideal woman in the eyes of many is still the self-sacrificing “good wife, wise mother.” Child rearing is still regarded as the primary duty of women. Housekeeping is also important. Women are expected to do the cleaning and cooking and in many cases peel apples, get cigarettes and make coffee on the demands of their husbands.
Outdated views of women endure in the highest levels of government. In January 2007, Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare minister Hakuo Yanagisawa was widely condemned when he called women “birth-giving machines” in a speech on the declining birth rate.
Japanese women are very much into "cuteness" (kawaii): Mickey Mouse, Poohsan (Winne the Pooh) and Hello Kitty are all very popular among women.
Japanese women who work as elevator operators, phone operators, office ladies and saleswomen sometimes talk in an unnaturally high voice that some Japanese regard as cute, polite and feminine but some Westerners and other Japanese find irritating. "
Then there is this which I inadvertently came across whilst checking on that Swedish cake incident where sadly due to the artists lack of artistry the issue diverted from female genital mutilation to *cough cough* racism..
[Link]
[Reader Discretion Highly Advised]
"Following the controversy, Linde stated, “I didn’t intend for anyone to feel embarrassed. But we’re talking about female genital mutilation—is there any comfortable or cozy way to talk about it?”
Yes there is—let me do so right now.
I was vaginally infibulated in Omdurman, Sudan soon after my birth. Infibulation in my region of Africa in 1969 meant that the muscles inside the vagina were cut loose and reconfigured ‘tighter’ (supposedly to incur ‘purity’ as the Mullahs claimed that the Koran states: “Woman is Impure”). After the tightening process, the vagina is stitched shut—you grow up having your period through a straw—which can take some women an entire month. On the outer lips of the vagina, seared in Arabic, they put the name of your father and his mosque on the left side—the right side of my vagina was left blank for the name of my future husband to be seared on with a hot poker later. My clitoris was not removed, because my birth mother was an Oromo, not a Muslim and wouldn’t allow what Arab Muslims call ‘the worm of unclean thoughts’ to be cut away. Thus I cannot speak on the horror of having no feeling, no clitoris. But protocol follows that years after this ritual—at your wedding ceremony, the groom is given a small razor. This is to slit you open so he can begin penetrating you on the ‘wedding bed’—a process that can take weeks."
That story is especially tragic because afterwards the victim went on to embrace the western whore archetype... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, double whammy.
All in all I think it is safe to say islamic and asian cultures might possibly mistreat their women abit more so than other areas.
One wonders where all this stuff came from... Maybe in the future one will wonder where the new form of female abuse, "The Wholescale Whore Archetype" came from. Seriously, where has it come from? Kind of just snuck in there and is now accepted as the antidote...
That is fucking horrible Luke, and i thought Kenyans were bad with
their patriarchal bullshit. Man, oh man, humanity is seriously fucked
up.
Yup stuff is seriously messed up on a worldwide level.
Psychopaths try to slime us with shame and they go about it in many different ways.
They can make you do shameful things and tell you not to be ashamed, then when it is revealed what you did, you are mortified. Remember the garden of eden? The snake said it was ok to eat the fruit...whoops, guess not.
Shame is sometimes bypassed shame. That means that instead of acting like you are ashamed, you behave just the opposite. How does that look? Think: Narcissism. When shame is so unbearable that you can't stand to feel it, you don't. You bypass it.
Our entire culture is based on shame. It just appears differently than what one would expect sometimes.
[Link]
They can make you do shameful things and tell you not to be ashamed, then when it is revealed what you did, you are mortified. Remember the garden of eden? The snake said it was ok to eat the fruit...whoops, guess not.
Shame is sometimes bypassed shame. That means that instead of acting like you are ashamed, you behave just the opposite. How does that look? Think: Narcissism. When shame is so unbearable that you can't stand to feel it, you don't. You bypass it.
Our entire culture is based on shame. It just appears differently than what one would expect sometimes.
[Link]
Didn't fail to notice it, the issue is too huge for every idea to be included. Stick around, there might be more coming. ;)
"And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; "
And say to the slaves that they should.....
anyways great article, everywhere, everywhere, the stain of psychopaths is able to be seen.
And say to the slaves that they should.....
anyways great article, everywhere, everywhere, the stain of psychopaths is able to be seen.
They are now objectifying violence! Anyone seen "Hunger Games"?
The 'big thing' that is being promoted at the moment? They've done a
great job here of promoting violence. It makes me sick to think about
it.
Thanks for a great article.
"Those who are sincere in their struggle for the right of women to
be seen for who they truly are, and for what they can truly be, must
understand that the movement has been co-opted by the Powers That Be.
It's time to take a deeper look at what we've all become and place the
blame where it truly lies. We've all had our role to play in this, so
the problem isn't with men. It also isn't with women. The problem lies
with our shared intraspecies predator - psychopaths, which are neither
men nor women - who seek to control any and all manifestation of
creative expression by dragging everything down with them to the lowest
common denominator and into the depths of entropy. Only by disentangling
ourselves from their hold on our beliefs can we begin to contemplate
any restoration of the divine feminine. "
As they say, occupy your mind or they'll do it for you.
As they say, occupy your mind or they'll do it for you.
for the article, realizing space along allows for the surface to be
peeled open only slightly on a subject that carries many causative
social aspects that are constantly tooled with, either in historical
context or in present time by manipulative forces and sold lock, stock
and barrel to the masses as the desired norm.
Darn, and such a guy is supposed to be a Prophet? Come on, how can some muslim be serious about Mohammed being a God´s prophet?