Love Is, History of Women - Abuse of Women Today

Though often misunderstood in the West as being a polytheistic religion, in reality Hindus believe in one God who manifests in many forms. In the highest form God, whom the Hindus call Brahman, is a state of pure consciousness—formless and thus infinite.

Although Hindus have different names for the many manifestations of God this is not really that different to what in the West we understand as the qualities of God—qualities like power, compassion, love, justice, wisdom, peace and so on. The difference is that Hindus ascribe names to these different aspects of God, whereas in Western religions we generally do not. Thus in Hinduism they may have many gods and goddesses but these are like titles that they ascribe to emanations of the One God. Hindus also have an equivalent of the Holy Trinity – Brahma (Father, the creator—not to be confused with Brahman), Vishnu (Son, the preserver) and Shiva (Holy Spirit, destroyer of all that is unreal).

We also see in Hinduism, more so than in any other major religion, the reverence of the Mother or Devi (also called Shakti). Devi can be thought of as Mother in the highest form, with all other goddesses being emanations of Devi. There are many such "smaller" goddesses revered and celebrated in Hinduism. Some of the better known ones are Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Durga, Saraswati and Kali. Often these goddesses are depicted as consorts of male gods which is consistent with the concept of Alpha and Omega polarities or the Yin and Yang principle seen in the Tai Chi symbol.

So we see in Hindus a people that have kept the memory and the love of the Spirit of Mother and passed it on from generation to generation since their migration from the continent of Lemuria, before it was destroyed.

But alas, it is often said that where there is the greatest light there is also the greatest darkness. Thus alongside the honoring of the Spirit of Mother, there is also in some regions of India a very great abuse of women which is an outpicturing of the hatred of Mother, perpetrated by what John the Revelator called the dragon:

Thus you see in some regions in India, particularly among lower castes, the widespread practice of female infanticide as well as abortion of female fetuses. In most countries around the world there are 105 female births to 100 male but in India there are 93 women for every 100 men. Diagnostic teams using ultrasound to determine the sex of a fetus advertise their services with catchphrases like "spend 500 rupees now, save 50,000 rupees later"—thus implying that by avoiding having a girl the family will avoid paying a dowry when the girl gets married.

So the main reason that female children are less desirable is the dowry. In Indian tradition upon the marriage of a daughter the bride's family gives a dowry to the groom's family which can be quite substantial and include large sums of money, farm animals, furniture and electronic goods. Originally the dowry was actually meant as a wedding gift to the daughter given to her by her family. Later it was given to offset the marriage expenses and as a sort of insurance in case the bride was mistreated by her in-laws. Nowadays it seems to be more of a bribe for the groom's family. Although it was outlawed in 1961, the extraction of the dowry by the groom's family continues to this day. If the dowry is thought to be insufficient by the groom or his family, the bride is often abused physically, mentally and emotionally.

The most severe form of dowry abuse is the practice of "bride burning" where the woman is covered in kerosene and set on fire by her in-laws. Most often this results in death or at best a severe disfigurement. Despite this savage practice being on the rise—there were about 400 cases a year in the early 1980's, by the mid-1990's this number had risen to 5,800 a year—it seems little is being done about it. Even these numbers are not a true indicator, as most cases go unreported or are attributed to accidents in the kitchen or suicides. It is estimated that only 5% of bride burning cases are recorded as murder. And even then prosecutions are rare as judges, who are mostly male, are indifferent or bought with bribes.

What message can these practices possibly send to women and girls in India? Surely it is not that they are inherently worthy spiritual beings and valued members of society. Is it any wonder then that when they are not subjected to this abuse early on in the marriage, women who outlive their husbands then have the burden of being considered worthless without their husband?

Widows sometimes see themselves as so wholly without value that they commit suicide by throwing themselves on their husband's pyre. Sometimes they don't do this voluntarily but are forced by their in-laws. This tradition, called Sati, was outlawed in 1829, but—after a resurgence—had to be outlawed again in 1956. Nevertheless it still occurs on occasion today in some rural areas. The reason behind this custom is that a widow was considered a burden that cannot participate in household work. Her touch, voice and appearance were considered unholy and repugnant. Whereas a woman that commits Sati is deemed pure.

The concept of Yin and Yang—where the masculine and feminine aspects of the Divine are in perfect balance, as depicted in the Tai Chi symbol (right)—originated in Taoism, one of the three main religions in China. Even so in China the basis of the society has always been the family and that family has historically had a patriarchal focus. The eldest male was the head of the family, when he passed on the eldest son would become head of the family. In an ideal situation the grandfather, his sons and their wives and children would all live under the same roof. Daughters, on the other hand, were not truly part of the family they were born into and were considered a sort of guest. Their destiny and what they were raised for was to become a part of their husband's family when they married.

Thus it is easy to see how viewing female children as guests can develop into a cultural bias towards male children. In China, as in India, female infanticide was a common practice particularly in rural areas. One 19th century missionary interviewed 40 women over the age of 50 in a rural area of China. They related to him that they had given birth to 183 sons and 175 daughters (collectively that is). Of those, 126 sons (that's 69%) and 53 daughters (only 30%) survived to age 10. By their own account the women had killed 78 (45%) of their female children. Presumably most of the others died of neglect. For example if a female child was ill, medical care would be sought only at a late stage, when more often than not little could be done to save the child. When male children became ill on the other hand, medical attention was sought early on.

When the Communist regime took over China in 1949 they outlawed this practice, and female infanticide became less common in the following decades. However in 1979 the government, in an attempt at population control, introduced the one child policy. This has single-handedly led to a sharp drop in female children starting from the 1980's. With urban families only allowed one child they have either sought help in determining the sex of the fetus before birth and aborting if the fetus is female or they have resorted to putting female infants up for adoption. These infants risk ending up in state owned orphanages which have been described as "dying rooms" for their degrading and unsanitary conditions. One documentary maker who visited a number of these orphanages found that 95% of children were able bodied girls (the remaining 5% were mentally or physically disabled boys). What is more it was documented that the vast majority of them weren't orphans at all but had been abandoned by their parents because they were the wrong sex.

There is also the possibility that a family, in order to avoid the heavy penalties that would befall them if they were to have a child "outside the plan," does not report the birth of a female child to the authorities. An uncertain future awaits such children as they for all sense and purposes have no identity. Legally they do not exist and thus would have difficulty going to school, as well as accessing medical care and other state services. An unannounced spot check by the authorities reported that 40% of children in one village had not been registered.

In rural areas the government has given families the concession of having two children but only if the first child is a girl. Nonetheless the World Health Organization reported in 1997 that more than 50 million women were estimated to be "missing" in China as a direct result of the institutionalized killing and neglect of girls because of the Chinese government's population control program. Stories abound in rural China of forced sterilization and late term abortions where nine month pregnant women are forcibly dragged to hospitals and injected with abortive drugs. Although in Beijing these stories are denied and they claim that such practices are illegal, there is no doubt that provincial officials are eager to enforce the one child policy at any cost.

Thus we can see here the evidence of the passage in Revelation which I have repeated in these articles several times, and which can indeed be interpreted at many levels:

The red dragon in this context means Red China—a name it acquired after the communist regime took over. Indeed the red dragon is the root cause of communism in all its facets, not only in China but anywhere. It is no coincidence that the flags of both the former Soviet Union and China are predominantly red for they honor that same red dragon. Although we think of red as a primary color, in reality red is a perversion of the true color of love, which is a deep pink. Thus as a perversion it represents anti-love, manifesting as hatred of all things of God. It is a color of anger and aggression, perfectly exemplified in the old expression of "seeing red" when someone is said to be extremely angry.

The seven heads of the dragon, which is the beast of the carnal mind, are a symbol of the perversions of the seven qualities of God and the seven crowns upon the heads show the misuse of each of the qualities of God in order to further amplify the seven perversions. Thus we see that the basis of communism is in fact the carnal mind, which as Paul described "is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God" (Ro 8:7). And we see the evidence of this in China's policies, in its denial of the basic rights given to all people by their creator. They have usurped the true God given rights of the people and continue to assert that rights are something given by the state. Thus they deny a higher power than the government and have crowned their collective carnal mind as supreme ruler, not subject to God or God's law. So we see in communist China the hatred of the woman and her seed in their attempt to control women and destroy (or "devour") the Christ light which is destined to be born in every child of God.

If you ask a person in the West in which culture they see the most abuse of women it is likely the answer would be in Muslim countries in the Middle East. In researching the role of women and their rights under Islamic law I have found quite a lot of evidence that in fact the original teachings of Islam give women equal status to men. For example below are some rights that Muslim women have which are stated in the Koran:

These rights are proclaimed on many a website aimed at disproving the common Western viewpoint that Muslim women are oppressed. And these rights are great and would be very honorable—if they were respected.

Instead what has happened in most Muslim countries is that these theoretical rights that women have are just that—theoretical! There are so many transgressions of these rights that it would take a lot longer than a few paragraphs (or even pages) to detail them all. For example women are generally not allowed to play an active role in choosing a husband, nor are they allowed to refuse an arranged marriage. Refusing a marriage has resulted in what is termed as an "honor killing" for many a woman.

An honor killing is the murder of a woman who is perceived to have brought dishonor to her family. It is usually planned by the woman's own family. In societies where honor killings are a custom, they are considered a private matter and thus the justice system does not get involved. Refusing a marriage is only one of many reasons why an honor killing might be executed. Women and girls are killed for even seemingly mundane things. One 12 year old girl came home from a walk with friends only to be beaten to death by her father for going for a walk without his permission. Women and girls who have been raped are also killed in this way, as it is deemed that they have disgraced their family—as if they chose to be raped! When they are lucky enough not to be killed, they are sent to prison for having sex outside marriage.

An honor killing is usually justified by the perpetrators or supporters as an attempt to uphold the morals of the religion. However in their spiritual blindness they forget that the very same religious law they seek to uphold states that murder is morally wrong. So from the outside it is obvious that they have become trapped in the duality consciousness, the reasoning that the end justifies the means, which is truly the consciousness of the fallen ones.

For as Mother Theresa once said "There are no ends, there are only means." Or in other words it is the means that lead to ends. God's laws are adhered to and the moral code kept when women are respected and honored—not when they are abused or murdered for the slightest perceived transgression.

In Afghanistan while under the fundamentalist rule of the Taliban regime being a woman was worse than being an animal, certainly animals had more freedom and rights. Truly the Taliban exhibited such a hatred of women and thus for the Spirit of Mother that they all but attempted to exterminate every woman in the country. Under their rule women had to be covered head to toe in a burqa (right) whenever they were in public. If even an inch of skin was showing they were dealt with brutally—I particularly recall reading about a man who was riding a bicycle, with his wife riding on the back. They were stopped by Taliban police who shot them both on the spot because there was an inch of skin showing at the woman's ankle as she sat on the back of the bike. Girls could not attend school. Women could not have a job. There were some women who were baking bread in their ovens at home and selling it for a small amount of money. When the Taliban found out they burned the women alive.

Under Taliban rule women were also denied medical care. Because under Islamic law a woman can only be examined by a female doctor or nurse, and because the Taliban had banned all women from working there were no female doctors or nurses and thus if you were a woman and became sick, well then that was just your bad luck. Animals, on the other hand, if they became sick could go to a vet. It is estimated that an astonishing 97% of Afghani women suffered (and many still suffer) major depression under the Taliban rule. Is it any wonder—when they were reduced to being practically nothing? Women who had previously held jobs as doctors, teachers, nurses, etc. now could not go outside the house without being chaperoned by a male relative. They were not even allowed to speak in public. Their existence was just that, an existence—they were all but invisible, with no sense of purpose to their lives, no opportunity to make a contribution to their society, and no role to fulfil other than that of child rearing.

What is it that makes Muslims so prone to this kind of fanaticism and degradation of women? Well to get to the root of the matter we need to go back to the time before Islam was established. Before the advent of Islam women were, believe it or not, in an even worse position. Female babies were often buried alive as they were a humiliation to the family (never mind that the mother who delivered the child was, of course, a woman!), so we can see where honor killings stem from. Women were regarded as slaves, the property of men—first their fathers then their husbands. They had no rights whatsoever.

When Archangel Gabriel delivered the teachings—that were later to become the basis of Islam—to Mohammad there were aspects of that teaching expressly aimed at raising up women in the Arab culture. He denounced the practice of female infanticide in the following passages of the Koran:

The above passage points out that the evil of killing the female infant is at the very least on par with the "evil" of the girl being born.

This passage relates to the Day of Judgment and implies that those who murdered female infants will have to answer for their actions on that day.

So we see that Islam had foundations which were to honor women, and the rights stated above truly are there in the foundations of Islam. But we also see that the subjugation of women was prevalent before Islam. And it would seem that the Arabs had a hard time letting go of these ungodly traditions. Thus their conversion was not complete and their prejudices colored their ensuing beliefs to such an extent as to make it possible to interpret the Koran in such a way as to make it possible to justify their mistreatment of women. So instead of Islam being a tool to free them from their fallen consciousness, the Arabs instead used Islam to cement that consciousness even further (something not alien to other religions either).

The Holy Spirit has revealed that even Mohammad himself was not able to fully let go of these false beliefs that women were subservient to men. Thus when Archangel Gabriel gave him the teachings, they were immediately colored by his state of consciousness. This is an unavoidable occurrence, and it is not necessarily bad, depending on what is in one's consciousness. We can visualize it as light passing through a kaleidoscope—the pattern of light that comes out the other side depends on what shapes are in the kaleidoscope. Thus if the shapes are murky or muddy the light will be diluted and less pure. However if the shapes are those of beauty, the light, though it will be changed, will not lose its pure quality—it will still convey the message it was meant to convey.

We can see evidence of Mohammad's state of consciousness coloring the message in the following passages:

So we see that even from the beginning there were some teachings in the Koran that were not the pure word of God. And yet they have been accepted as such and this has then made it easier to pervert and misinterpret the teachings even more and use them to justify all manner of evil, particularly of the mistreatment of women.

While researching for this article I came across some of the most horrific abuse of women that made me cry with compassion as I felt this abuse personally, in oneness with the Spirit of Mother. In Africa, as well as in some Middle Eastern communities, the hatred of Mother and abuse of women that results from this hatred runs deep. The particular form of abuse that is prevalent in Africa is Female Genital Mutilation, also called Female Circumcision in order to downplay the effects this practice has on women.

This form of mutilation strikes right at the base of Mother. It takes away the fullness of womanhood as women often end up feeling incomplete resulting in psychological issues. It also damages our ability to be Mother in the physical sense which carries repercussions to our sense of identity and being able to value the Spirit of Mother and see ourselves as one with it.

There are several different types of mutilation, ranging from fairly mild (a snipping of the clitoral hood, equivalent in effect to male circumcision) to a full removal of all external sexual organs and the sowing up of the two sides leaving only a small opening to allow the passing of urine and menstruation. The latter leaves particularly gruesome effects on the woman and often leads to many infections and problems later in life (the wound has to be cut open, with a knife and generally no anesthetic, for sexual relations as well as child birth. It is then resown after each episode.) The woman is thus subdued, never able to fully embody the Spirit of Mother because the Mother in her is rejected so harshly.

The practice is often justified by saying that it is part of Muslim doctrine or beliefs, however this is not the case. Female genital mutilation predates both Islam and Christianity and thus it is considered a cultural practice and not tied to religion in any way except that people have come to falsely associate it with religion.

In fact there are passages in the Koran which point to the fact that the practice is ungodly. For example "Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain" (3:191) implying that people are created as they are for a purpose and we are not to modify our bodies. There is also a passage where Satan states

So from this it is clear that this practice did not come from God. In fact the Koran promotes the concept of a husband and wife giving each other pleasure during intercourse:

So why then is this abhorrent practice still occurring? There is no worldly excuse for the trauma and pain it would cause a child (FGM is performed on female children of any age from two to adolescence, in some cultures it is performed on infants only a few days old), as the procedure is usually performed with crude instruments and with no anesthetic.

So we see here again the rampant putting down of woman, in the belief that women are not supposed to enjoy sex, that our bodies are to be modified so as to reduce the likelihood that we would enjoy sex, and conversely increase a man's sexual pleasure; that our bodies are dirty and unsightly and the biggest lie of all—that mutilating a woman's body enhances fertility and promotes child survival. In other words that desecrating the body of Mother makes one a better mother—what kind of logic is this? Well it's the same kind of logic as "let us do evil that good may come" which is the lie of the serpentine mind that firmly believes that the ends justify the means. This has been proven to be a lie as studies have shown that babies born to women who have undergone FGM are 66% more likely to need resuscitation and up to 55% more likely to be stillborn or die immediately after birth. 2

So you can see here a culture of anti-Mother, a culture that I might add is perpetrated by women, as it is women who continue to perform genital mutilation on their daughters and grand-daughters.

We can see the effects of this rejection of Mother in Africa where there is so much starvation and poverty. You see, it is through the Mother that we receive nurturance in the physical realm. It is the Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Lu 12:32) and he does so through the body of the Mother. But what happens when we desecrate the Mother and reject her to such an extent? Well of course we also reject her nurturance and thus cut ourselves off from receiving the abundance that it is naturally ours to receive. You see God respects our free will. He won't force the kingdom onto us.

And so it becomes clear why there is so much poverty, malnutrition and disease in Africa. The people there are simply experiencing the consequences of their actions, the consequences of their choice to put down Mother and to desecrate her in such a brutal manner. Thus the famine and disease in Africa is no accident. It is the evidence of a people who have enrolled themselves in a school of hard knocks.

You see God doesn't want his children to suffer so, but he respects the gift of free will he has given us and will allow us to suffer if that is our choice. Nevertheless, he continues to hope that we will one day learn the higher way, the way of Love. And it is this Love—divine Love—that will open the door to the Kingdom. It is the Love of Mother and Father and Son as the Christ within ourselves, it is when we balance the Father and Mother within ourselves through the Christ wisdom that will liberate us from all worldly suffering and allow us to Be who we truly are in God.

Our choices need not be permanent, the very fact that we have free will means that if we have made a bad choice we have the ability to undo that choice—and all that has resulted from it—by making a better choice now. No matter how bad the situation might seem, how irredeemable we might seem—something that certain mainstream religions seem to want us to believe—there is always hope. We always have the option of turning around.

But to do that we need to realize that where we're currently heading is a dead end. We will never turn around as long as we hold on to our human pride, thinking that the mistakes we've made weren't mistakes at all and this is the way it's supposed to be.

The truth is that mistakes can be turned into stepping stones for our victory. But this can only be done when we acknowledge the error and then let it go and choose better. How do we choose better? When our choice stems from the understanding and the wisdom of the Christ mind, one with the Father, in the love of Mother.

1 Female genital mutilation 2000. Retrieved May 17, 2007, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/

2 New study shows female genital mutilation exposes women and babies to significant risk at childbirth 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2007, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr30/en/index.html

The History of Women in the Role of Mother on Planet Earth