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INTENTION : |
That all cultures may respect the rights and dignity of women.
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The invitation of Pope Francesco to pray for women "That all cultures may respect the rights and dignity of women" is very relevant in the context of today, particularly in the context of India. Five men in Delhi, the capital, were charged last year with the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a case that has brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets. Rapes are frequent in India. But the brutality of the rape of a medical student that took place in Delhi on the night of 16 December 2012 appalled the country's citizens and brought simmering anger about widespread crime against women. The 23-year-old was raped on a bus by six men, including the driver, who also assaulted her with an iron bar, causing severe internal damage which led to her death. The cruelty of the gang outraged the nation, which stood up and protested, not only in Delhi but in major cities and towns across the country.
India's women are discriminated against, abused and even killed on a scale unparalleled in the top 19 economies of the world, according to a new poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It's a miracle a woman survives in India. Even before she is born, she is at risk of being aborted due to our obsession for sons," said Shemeer Padinzjharedil. As a child, she faces abuse, rape and early marriage and even when she marries, she is killed for dowry. If she survives all of this, as a widow she is discriminated against and given no rights over inheritance or property." India had a female prime minister, or head of government, as long ago as 1966. Today there are two female Chief Ministers in India. The country's top political positions are held by women, including the head of the main ruling party, Sonia Gandhi, and the country's outgoing president, Pratibha Patil. Well-dressed women in Western attire driving scooters or cars to work is now an everyday sight in cities. Women doctors, lawyers, police officers and bureaucrats are common. But scratch under the surface and the threats in India are manifold - from female foeticide, child marriage, dowry and honour killings to discrimination in health and education and crimes such as rape, domestic violence and human trafficking.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief or to one nation. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths and in all cultures. At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime.
In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.
The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices.
We Christians must bear in mind that there are vivid descriptions in the Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.
This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views. Let us join our beloved Pope not only in praying for the rights and dignity of women, but also to bring attitudinal changes personally and structural changes socially to empower women and to ensure their dignity as children of the One God.
Fr. Ambrose Vedam, sj
Jesuit from India that works in the General Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome
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