BREAK A WOMAN TO SAVE A WOMAN: On Feminism, Faith & Tomfoolery
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off! Right . Except that now, Nigerian religious zealots have taken it a step further. They are cutting off other people’s arms for their own sins, and plucking out their neighbours’ eyes to keep themselves from lusting. The Christians’ holy book records Jesus’ purely platonic but close alliance with some female figures like Mary Madgalene, and Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. It also records His firm stance in support of the fundamental human right of the adulterous woman, even when it was against the Jewish culture that doomed her to public stoning; but despite this, most of its adherents, utterly depraved in their bigotry, have only chosen to see women as expendables in the society. Slowly and finally, we have graduated from the point of regarding victims of sexual violence as culpable in the crime because of their physical appearance. But what else is to be expected? A society can only endorse the message that a man is entitled ...