– S.K Magar
Every other day we keep on hearing of unpleasant news about the violence against women. Violence against women takes many forms from abuse to murder. It is not just the news from other places far and wide around the world that involve this rather it also involves the places where we are living i.e. Nepal etc. as well as in and around us too. The news pieces everyday seems to be full of such heinous incidents of violence against women. Let’s looks for example to some news pieces and reports from around the world:
India:
‘If one goes by the latest statistics of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), every day 93 women are being raped in the country.’[1]
Nepal:
‘This year, INSEC documentation has maximum incidents of domestic violence at 1, 569. There have been 283 victims of Polygamy, 215 women victims of rape, 69 victims abused on charge of to practicing witchcraft, 52 sexually abused victims, 52 victims of women trafficking or attempted trafficking and four victims who lost their lives after not getting Pre and Post-Partum Services.’[2]
Asia:
‘A new survey by the United Nations reveals that almost a quarter of men in some Asian countries admit to having committed a rape. The study was based on interviews with more than 10, 000 men in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka.’[3]
The situation of women is bleaker globally:
‘Trafficking ensnares millions of women and girls in modern-day slavery. Women and girls represent 55 per cent of the estimated 20.9 million victims of forced labour worldwide, and 98 per cent of the estimated 4.5 million forced into sexual exploitation.’[4]
The last six of the Ten Commandments deals with the love towards our fellow men. In God’s written Word we are admonished repeatedly to love our fellow human beings; and Women are featured therein prominently. Be it Rahab the Harlot, Moabite Ruth, Orphan Esther, Childless Hannah, Virgin Mary and demon possessed Mary Magdalene; the value of women has been treasured along the same line as that of men. Oh, sorrow great! Men not looking into the word of God to know the value and esteem of women in their social, economic, physical, mental, emotional, educational, spiritual and many other such aspects of life. How sad it is! How bad it is! That the species of a human sex used symbolically to portray God’s cherished beautiful bride (Ephesians 5:25), the truthful and loyal remnant church in the prophetic book of Revelation as ‘the sun-clad woman’ (Revelation 12:1)has been made to look inferior intentionally and unintentionally in so many parts of the world today hindering their progress to bring change in our societies and to be used as God’s voice to win the lost souls and to be another ‘Voice in the wilderness’ to trumpet and prepare for His glorious second advent.
God Himself does not like these ill-treatments of women that our world is so much used to and He shows this by sending out a loud and clear message through the lives of compassionate women like Dorcas (Acts 9:36) and Salome (Mark 15:40, 41) in Biblical times, Mother Teresa of Missionaries of Charity and Helen Eager (adorably called ‘Mummy Eager’ by thousands of underprivileged children in South Asia) of Asian Aid International in our times to bring care to the poorest of the poor, fatherless, orphans, sick and widows. Not only men but God regards women also as very special in proclaiming His word to the nations and that is displayed by the fact that He has had His ‘Team lady prophetesses’ such as Miriam (Exodus 15:20, 21), Deborah (Judges 4:4, 5), Huldah (2 Kings 22:12-20), Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 1:1-3), Anna (Luke 2:36) and Daughters of Philip (Acts 21:8, 9) in the old and new times of the Bible era and Ellen. G White in our times. These all have enacted as a small voice and small light to lead people to the bigger voice and greater light-the Bible itself to find truth regarding our own existence and eternal hope in Jesus Christ who gave His life to save every lost soul who have ever lived in this world.
A world without women cannot be imagined. The perpetrators of female genital mutilation, girl trafficking, rapes of innocent and weak women and despisers of girl child need to know the fact that gender ‘woman’ is not the problem but it is the wrong and unjust manner in which women are treated with bigoted, bias opinion that is the problem, causing inequality and division. Getting birth in this world as a girl child is not a sin! That’s why God made Mothers, Wives, and Sisters. God did not create a son or a brother or any other man for Adam instead he made woman Eve for man Adam. It is noteworthy as some suggest to believe or assume that our saviour Jesus spent much more years with His mother before than those three and half years full-fledged ministerial part of his life and it was Jesus our Lord who chose a woman to give the precious and most astounding news of all generation: The news of His resurrection to his disciples (Mark 16: 9, John 20: 11-18) and the world as a whole. See God’s esteem of a woman here and question ourselves as to how we are treating our sisters, mothers and daughters.
The God-man and man-God who walked our earth two millennia ago admonished us to show the respect due to ‘Women’ because they are ‘Women’. Be it:
- An adulteress on the ground before him (John 8:11) or
- A hard working guest entertaining host lady (Luke 10:41-42) or
- A physically sick women having an issue of blood (Luke 8:48) or
- The concerned mothers of the little children (Mark 10:14) or
- A Canaanite foreign woman with a demon possessed daughter (Matthew 15:28) or
- The weeping women that he met as he was carrying his cross to Calvary (Luke 23:28) or
- A mother whose son had been crucified unjustly before her own eyes falsely accusing Him of the crimes he didn’t commit (John 19:26),
Jesus always had the words of forgiveness, truth, healing, comfort, peace, joy, security, love and hope to women because He knew they were ‘women’ with immense value in His Father’s sight. Jesus cries with every women and is pained by every women’s tear when He sees women in agony, need, sickness, injustice and in suffering as He does with every men.
How are we to treat our fellow-Women? Should we go about raping, performing female genital mutilation, keep on torturing and violently abusing them or should we treat them in a way as Jesus admonished us:
‘….. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’-Matthew 22:39 KJV.
Are we ready to respect the advice and command of our Lord?
Endnotes
[2] Violence against Women/Girls Assessing the Situation of Nepal in 2013, page 12, INSEC Nepal
[4] Figure derived from data based on a 2002-2011 reference period. International Labour Organization, 2012, “ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and Methodology,” p. 14, Geneva
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