Radical Islam and the role of women

Last week, I guess I upset the apple cart (based on feedback I received) for a few Christians by writing about replacement theology and why that idea is not a biblical doctrine. This week, I’m going to risk upsetting the apple cart again (this time regarding male/female relations) by talking about God’s creation, and especially the very last of God’s creatures that He created, i.e., the woman.

We can see from the Hebrew words that underlie the English translations that a woman was given by God to be a “partner” with a man. Just like all of mankind was created to be a partner with God Himself in building and resorting the lost or decaying portions of this world (this concept is called in Hebrew Tikkun Olam, correction of the world). God created man from the earth, whereas he created woman from Adam’s rib. So, woman is the highest (spiritually) of all of God’s creation (second only to the Sabbath, which was the very last of all of God’s creation).

The Hebrew words used in Genesis 2:18 for this creation when the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” are ezer (meaning aid or help) and neged (counter part, opposite). These words are often translated into the English as “help meet.” But that doesn’t convey the exact meaning because the word neged actually means, “to be in opposition.” In other words, women are to be a true partner with men. Helping the man when he is on the correct spiritual track/path and opposing him (albeit not in public, so as never to shame him) when she sees him on the wrong spiritual track/path. Women were built/created for this purpose, to be on a higher spiritual plane in order to assist. Hence, women are not required to perform as many of the commandments as compared with men, and their role as a partner to a husband is to aid or assist him (spiritually) if he wanders from the Derekh HaShem (i.e., the Path of God).

Another major misconception about women in the book of Genesis is regarding verse 3:16, when it is written, “… unto the woman he [God] said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he (Strong’s #1931 hoo = he/she/it) shall rule over thee.”

Now, if this third person pronoun is translated as he, referring back to the man, then this is the only place in the Hebrew Bible claiming that one human being “type” will rule over another. But this third person pronoun can also be translated as it, which would refer back to the woman’s desire (i.e., her feelings or emotions), which shall rule the woman. And we can certainly see that this is truly the case, i.e., that women (generally) are more ruled over by their feelings and emotions than are men. Also, remember that the woman is called an ezer neged, or a “partner,” to a man/men – so she can’t be a genuine “partner” if the man is ruling over her.

In the book of Genesis, at 1:28-31, God blessed them (plural, meaning the man and the woman together, who were created) and God said that they were to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and over every thing that moved upon the earth. But, nowhere does the Hebrew Bible ever say explicitly that man (or men) was to have dominion (or be a ruler) over a woman (women). So, this is just another mistranslation of the Hebrew words in the Bible, and this mistranslation has been used for many years to promote a form of “oppression” of (and even a disregard for) one portion of the species by another portion of the species. This oppression of women by (some) men was never intended by God to be the result of His creation of women as an ezer neged. The very mature and secure men in all cultures and religions on the face of this planet have long ago figured this situation out for themselves … and treat women accordingly, as equals.

What does all of this have to do with Islam(ism)? Radical Islam, in certain countries, is one of the most oppressive regimes on this planet as it relates to women and their rights as human beings. In Afghanistan, for example, the Taliban government has produced an incredibly brutal form of oppression of the women, forbidding them to work or even to leave their homes without a male escort from their family. Some claim that this is for their own protection, from men who might decide to do them harm, but it goes even further than the denial of jobs to the educated women. Young girls are not allowed to go to school to get an education. Women teachers must hide the fact that they are teaching the children to read and write. This kind of oppression is the idea of “men ruling over women,” implemented in its most extreme form. And liberation of women in our own society is seen by many radical Muslims as just another example of the “decadence” of the West.