Daily Times

It has time and again been proven that depending upon her genetic makeup (genotype), allowing her personal freedoms of all kinds, and opening to her the doors of opportunities, woman can do anything that man can do, while shattering the glass ceiling (and she often does it better than her male counterpart). But man, even with an optimal genotype, full freedom, available opportunities, and no ceiling barrier, cannot do everything that woman can do naturally, physically, or intellectually.

However, since the beginning of human species–early hominins–2 million years ago, woman, for some reasons, chose to be mostly a gatherer (akin to being today’s homemaker) and man decided to be a hunter (akin to being today’s provider who brings home the bacon or beef). This hunter-gatherer setup may have led the woman to depend on and be subservient to the man and caused, on the other hand, the man to sense he was needed, to feel exceptional, and to start to build, resultantly, a mindset that man as a provider is stronger, smarter, and superior, and woman is weaker and less capable in various aspects of life.

This mindset of men and the male-dominated trend along with male-driven specific roles, responsibilities, and rights of women and men continued to the stone/bronze/iron age civilizations to the agrarian//industrial/modern civilizations to some extent and in various aspects. Also, the male-dominated trend resulted in mostly patriarchal societies or norms. Women in the ancient times were considered chattels (property like domestic animals); and as such, they had their certain age-related monetary values for transactional purposes, which often involved buying or selling of women, for example, as sex slaves or woman-servants.

Moreover, in the ancient to medieval times, the prevalent patriarchal culture and norms in various societies allowed certain men, generationally, to freely think about the mysteries of the world and indulgently invent and pervasively preach and intimidatingly impose religions based upon patriarchy to further maintain and strengthen the male superiority/control in the societies. In their ideologies, the men of religions used and often abused the faiths and played on the fears of ordinary and gullible people for personal and/or political expediencies, or for the intellectual, physical, material, or monetary benefits of the religions and/or for themselves.

This mindset of men and the male-dominated trend along with male-driven specific roles, responsibilities, and rights of women and men continued to the stone/bronze/iron age civilizations to the agrarian/ /industrial/ modern civilizations to some extent and in various aspects

There is a realizable difference between faith and religion. Faith is innate—psychophysiological and psychoneuroimmunological–or inherent in humans, and can be a belief in a worldly knowledge (e.g., science/math) or human potentials for sake of living a well-informed or self-reliant life, or a belief in an unknown Force or a deity or God (an imaginary being or idol) for sake of spirituality while religion, which has a faith of its followers as its foundation, is an ideology that comprises a doctrine, rituals or teachings /injunctions for controlling the minds, voices/speeches or activities of people in their daily lives (Refer to my previous article, “Faith and Religion”, for more information).

The teachings/injunctions of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), for examples, are claimed to be the literal, inerrant, indomitable, “revealed” Word of God of the religions. The religious teachings/injunctions have been found to be pervasively sexistic and misogynistic and have therefore marginalized women and treated them unequally/unfairly in the patriarchy-dominated societies for millennia. Women (and non-believers) have been victims of the Abrahamic religions.

In Judaism, the Torah–the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) says the following about women: “WOMAN CREATED FROM ADAM’S RIB”; (Genesis 2:22); “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Genesis 3:16); “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.” (Exodus 21:7):”then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated (raped) her…” (Deuteronomy 22:29); “For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth in wait as for a prey…” (Proverbs 23:27-28); “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man….” (Deuteronomy 22:5); (Genesis 36:6); “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days…”; “But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks….”. (Leviticus 12:2 and Leviticus 12:5).

And the following verses show women are worth less than men: “……from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, ……shall be fifty shekels of silver…”, “And if it be a female……shall be thirty shekels.”, “And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then ……shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.”, “And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then …… shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female ……shall be three shekels of silver.”, “And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then ……shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels” (Leviticus 27:3-7);

The other verses, here, show polygamy, male-lordship, and unfairness to woman who is listed among animals: “And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to a husband…..she shall be scourged…” (Leviticus 19:20); “And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women-servants (concubines)” (Genesis 32:22); “And Esau took his wives.” “……you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife……or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey…..” (Exodus 20:17).; and “So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord (husband) is old, will I now have this pleasure?”” (Genesis 18:12).

Continued to Part II.

The writer is based in California, US