IKEA removed women from its Saudi Arabia product catalogue, to make it according to local market rules. We all read or heard about it and we judged to ourselves that in Saudi Arabia women have different rights than men no rights.
Such an action is clearly in conflict with western values and ideas about gender equality and relevant discrimination issues. Gender equality (see women’s liberation & feminism) is a relatively new concept. Women started fighting for their rights in the second half of the 20th century. It is not surprising why all kind of female right violations are still so common. If you like, gender equality is an innovative and modern concept. It’s new. Or is it?
Going back in time women were always discriminated, considered less human than men, less smart, less capable of thinking etc. It is possible that women were less smart than men, but this just because they didn’t have the right to study, or even to learn basic things like reading. Women were just children-makers & household machines. This changed relatively recently, but we still get to see news titles like “The first woman to…”. When did all this start? I assume everybody will blame Eve and the apple. Whether Eve is to be blamed or not, I am not the one to judge.
When did the change come?
Much before the feminism movements of 1960, much before the UN convention regarding discrimination against women (1972), there was somebody who eliminated all types of discrimination against women, who welcomed them to learn, to express their opinions and feelings. And this Someone was Jesus.
Jesus brought the new law. A law that isn’t anything like a law. A law that gives freedom instead of restrictions, love instead of punishment.
Before getting any further, let’s bring a little bit of Jesus’ time’s culture here with regard to women.
- Women had little or no authority in their society
- Women didn’t have the right to go to schools or anything like that
- They were considered inferior to men
- They weren’t allowed to go out in public, or talk to strangers
- They were even excluded from worship and teaching of God
(Ref: http://www.religioustolerance.org/cfe_bibl.htm)
Jesus brought the change. He actually violated the written and unwritten rules of that time, talking to strange women (John 4:9), curing sick women (Mark 5:21-43) and calling them ‘daughters of Abraham’ (Luke 13:15), Hhe let women follow Him and learn from Him. Jesus made no difference between men and women, He treated them equally, He showed himself after resurrection to women first.
They say Jesus was a feminist (Jesus was a feminist, by Leonard Swidler) so much before people 'discovered' this concept.
But then everything what Jesus taught was interpreted by great, yet subjective minds, put in books, churches, systems; classified, categorized. They created rules, laws and boundaries from something that was meant to bring freedom, love and life. They created the history as we know it.
I wonder what would have been if people (=history) had followed Jesus’ teachings, model, example, had tried at least to ‘copy’ His behavior and attitude on this matter. Ideally speaking, all types of discrimination wouldn’t have existed at all. But over 2000 years later we are still coping with situations as the one above.
Why I am writing this. In my culture people often confuse religion & churches with Christianity. I’ve read dozens of ‘feminism oriented’ blogs, where the writers often blame Christianity for the existing cultural differences between men and women. I agree 100% that the Orthodox Church has to do a lot with that.
Churches create rules and boundaries. Churches judge, even though they teach not to.
Jesus taught people in the middle of nowhere. He had no house/school/church building to gather his people in. There was no physical limitation in his Church.
There was freedom & equality at all levels.
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