“The moral and physical suffering, the shame, the desire to die, that chaos in my mind when I returned along the path to my house to collapse onto a bed like a dying animal. I am able to tell Nareem what I couldn’t possibly tell my mother or my sisters, because all I have ever learned since a tiny child, has been—silence.”

Guilty by Association

Mukhtar Mai, In the Name of Honor, relates  the author’s 2006 personal account as a young Pakistani woman’s horrid ordeal of public gang rape for her brother’s transgression of holding the hand of a girl from a rival tribe. The double punishment—of the boy, Nareem, and his virtuous sister, Mukhtar Mai, satisfied the tradition of a primitive tribal custom, alive today. The victim was an innocent girl punished for someone else’s “crime.” Her punishment was the humiliation of public gang rape. Had she been the guilty party, her punishment would have been public stoning.

Another Falsely Accused Victim

The ancient mantra of an “eye for an eye,” retribution for a crime, an insult, a mistake, is age-old. Ancient literature documents the punishment women suffered for adultery or rape—real or imagined—was public stoning. That event is characterized by the horrific punishment of another innocent young woman falsely accused of an infraction of “The Law.”

The smug satisfaction of a jealous neighbor who falsely accused the young woman, the self-righteous elders who fancied themselves “guardians of the law,” and the zealous local athletes whose accurate aim with the handy stones was a source of pride, all gathered to put the young woman “in her place” for her alleged transgression. The accused, affectionately called Habibi, would end her fifteen years shivering with fear, crouching on the rough, dirt ground to protect the soft tissue of her breast, her belly, her private parts. Soon that would not matter. There was no protection from the shock and pain of unrelenting pummeling of palm-sized stones. Her nude, crouched body made a small knot, an easy target for the well-aimed stones that would knock out her teeth, puncture her eyes, end her hearing, break her knees, and mercifully crush her skull, sending her into welcome unconsciousness and slow death while the accusers—and the young man who had touched her hand—stood silently at the edge of the crowd—watching.

When the stoning was over, the crowd went home, the proud marksmen dispersed to congregate, replay, and brag about their final, deadly blows, and the young woman’s frail, battered body, oozing with blood and body fluids, was exposed to the jackals and raptors. Soon—like Queen Jezebel, who died in 843 BCE—there would be nothing left of this innocent young woman but the clotted, bloody hair on her battered skull and the bones of her defenseless hands. “The Law” was fulfilled. The elders were satisfied. The accused was dead, her family was humiliated, and the people were warned.

From a thousand years before the time of Christ to the present, “the blood red fabric of tribal life” still clothes women whose people have not advanced up the ladder of civilization to see their laws as primitive, their behavior inhumane, and their women as human.

Dr. P.D. Sargent,
Power Women: Lessons from the Ancient World
[email protected]
pdsargent.com

As long as there have been war, pestilence, natural disasters, or great building projects: temples, great walls, canals, or pyramids—women have lost their men. In some villages in which hundreds of men went to work and did not return, hundreds of widows remained. Theirs was a great loss, for in ancient times in China and in Greece women had no public face. Forbidden to leave the house without a guardian, the widow was unable to work—sell her produce, handiwork, or service to earn a living to feed her children. Without the freedom to work the field, negotiate sales in the market––selling the animals she tended or the food she raised––a widow could not make a living.

It was the widow’s fate to rely on a son, perhaps one whose mother was only a distant memory. He was in charge, leaving her vulnerable to the mercy of his memory of her nurturance, his particular personality, his whim, or even the agreement of his wife. Like his father and her father, a woman’s son was free to starve her, neglect her, whip her, or kill her. Incredibly, elder abuse is a common phenomenon even in today’s world. Some sons relieved themselves of the societal responsibility to care for them by eliminating the aged woman. And while her marriage perhaps had been difficult, her widowhood would be miserable.

In the Levant, at least remarriage to the husband’s brother would bring a stable life. There, a widow was expected to marry her husband’s male relative so she would continue the bloodline in the husband’s honor. She remained part of the family. Levirate marriage was a part of the Hebrew culture.

But in China, during the influence of Confucius, women were discouraged from remarrying, even shamed if they did so. Poverty for herself and her children was imminent.

In India, widow’s fate was determined. Some communities traditionally practiced the Hindu religious funeral ritual, sati also known as suttee. For hundreds of years, a widow was expected to throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre and follow him unto death. In the Bengal Sati Regulation of 1829, the British East India Company outlawed the custom of the widow’s immolation.

Once a widow, religious women were brainwashed to die for the glory of their earthly god rather than continue with the loss of quality of life merely existing in a form of living death. In cultures in which women were not esteemed, burial was not important for a widow, the disposition of her corpse is not known. In some corners of the ancient world, the word widow meant “she who is waiting to die.”

A folksong, perhaps from the time of the Civil War, touches the heart of every woman who waves goodbye to her love for the last time:

He’s gone away
For a little while,
But he’s comin’ back
Though he goes ten thousand miles
Oh, who will tie my shoes?
And who will glove my hand?
And who will kiss my ruby lips when he’s gone?

In every culture, in every land, women lament the loss of the beloved spouse. The consequences, the aftermath, are diminished by the deep sorrow of the moment, knowing they now are alone. Widowhood is not merely a word. Having been widowed only one year and into my eternity, I now can relate to the multi-millions before me who loved and lost.

Dr. P.D. Sargent,
Power Women: Lessons from the Ancient World
[email protected]
pdsargent.com

So, you survived the plague! Yes, if you had COVID-19, you recovered. And if you have not had it, your immunity is working. People in the ancient world had little hope of survival. Since time began, the world has suffered disasters causing chaos, disruption of daily life, pain, and death. In ancient times, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruption were backyard occurrences. Plague wiped out large percentages of entire populations. No one was safe from the ravages of war or the terrifying invasions of marauding nomads. There were no pharmacies, only singular individuals who tried every herb and root––even dung––to cure the unfortunate victims of Nature. People prayed to the gods of Water, Wind, and Fire to give them succor, for it was humans who had obviously ignored the worship of the gods, seeking their own goals and  pursuing their selfish pleasures. Blaming themselves for foreign invasion, the Hebrews accepted personal consequences of the Assyrian invasions and displacement of their people to Babylon because they said they had ignored Yahweh’s Laws.

With abandon, the gods destroyed what people had made, sparing only the few. In stories from around the world, floods covered the earth; mountains disappeared in smoke. From the island of Thera, entire Mediterranean populations were displaced or destroyed by volcanic eruption around 1600 BCE. Two centuries later, the turbulence of war, drought, and famine displaced thousands of natives––the Sea Peoples––those who searched for fertile land in which to settle, and brigands, who just wanted booty, toppled civilizations including the intrepid Hittites. Over millennia, rampant fear surged through the caves and small villages. Mothers clung to their children, those who had survived the surprise onslaught. People struck deals with the gods. “I will obey your commands,” they cried pitifully, crouching near the spent fire that had destroyed their charred homes.

Life as they had known it indeed changed. Survivors helped each other to rebuild. New sources of food were found. Some resettled to other, more fertile climes. Life continued until the next catastrophe hit. With knowledge of the past, people faced each crisis, and  braced for the unknown. Those who profited from the grim lessons became better leaders. Unfortunately, people forgot their deals with the gods, forgot the harsh lessons from the past, and danced on the razor’s edge of veracity.

History repeats itself. Over the millennia, plagues have come and gone. The earliest reported plague was the Plague of Athens, 430–426 BCE. Just as the Peloponnesian War was theirs to win, the plague killed one-third of Athens’ population including the seemingly invincible leader, Pericles. Of course, there were earlier plagues, but they could not be reported because, as yet, there was no written language.

As people outside Athens sought refuge within the city walls, a movement that would be appropriate against human invasion, was disastrous. The rural peoples died with the infected, crowded city population. The movement, appropriate against a human invasion, was deadly against hidden, mysterious, and virulent bacteria and unknown microbes. Pericles’s mismanagement and miscalculations of the force afflicting his people claimed needless more Greek lives and were based upon a lack of factual knowledge.

Periodically other plagues invaded the ancient world. The Antonine Plague, 165–180 CE,  brought down mighty Rome. Galen, father of medicine, explained that soldiers returning from the Near East brought the pandemic to the Roman Empire, claiming ten percent of the population. As the pestilence dissipated, hope returned to the people, and life seemed to return to normal. However, within nine years, it returned and continued to claim lives until 270 CE. As the Plague of Athens ended the Peloponnesian War, this horrific disease in Rome ended antiquity.

But plagues continued, Bubonic Plague, also called the Black Death, affected Europe and Asia in the 1300s. The Spanish Plague of 1918 was followed by devastating occurrences of Influenza the same year. All came by stealth and surprise with lethal consequences. With no warning, no knowledge of hygiene, and no medications to abate the ravages of the earth’s quiet killers, millions all over the world died. Earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions gave  people scant warning. Some could take to higher ground and survive, but with airborne waves of invisible disease, others’ only recourse was suffering, agony, and––sometimes welcome––death.

Today, Coronavirus disease, 2019’s highly infectious plague, may or may not be man-made; nevertheless, it is a disturbance of normal life, a lesson that humankind is not totally in control of natural––or unnatural––catastrophes. But the advantage of today is our knowledge  that poor hygiene, dangers of mass group interaction, and lack of self-care invite raging disease. That said, COVID-19 has now been reported to have killed more Americans than the 1918 Spanish Flu.[1] Yet world-wide statistics do not compare with the ancient population losses of the individual cities of  Athens and Rome.

In all catastrophes, some will survive, and through it all, some will be stronger, wiser, and more innovative. Life on Earth will always change. Heraclitus wrote, and Renaissance writers avowed, “The only constant in life is change.” The Stoics say, “Embrace Change.”

[1] https://www.wkrn.com/special-reports/then-versus-now-covid-surpasses-spanish-flu-death-toll/

How long does traditional tribal thinking permeate the Middle East and other parts of the world? And why do Muslims cling to tribal tradition and claim that Allah commands the veil when the Quran only instructs women and men to dress modestly? Why has the instruction become so exacerbated as to demean women?

In the earliest times, circa 2000 BCE, the Assyrian kings gathered beautiful women from their conquests and sequestered them in harems. The Egyptians, Ottomans, Mughals, and Chinese also treasured their harems, private pleasure property of the monarch. The harem was the exclusive residence for the king’s pleasure. To assure that wishful observers did not taint the women, the inmates were covered so that “none could wish to know them.” They were indeed locked in a “gilded cage”––that wasn’t always effective––even trusted eunuchs found a way to inveigle neglected harem women.

Covering the face is both a protection and an invitation. Ironically, we learn that veiling the face has not always accomplished the miracle of anonymity. Today, we note that tribal men have realized that fact and have added to the full burqa a screen that fits over the eyes. With this new costume innovation, women now appear as imprisoned apparitions, creatures without recognition and without meaning. They are, in fact, non-entities: the walking, working, obedient non-living.

Originally, men invented the veil to protect their property. Throughout the world, it was necessary to protect the women from assault and rape. In the twelfth century BCE, Ramesses III—who is known as the last great pharaoh—took pride in the fact that he had cleared the marketplace and the streets of foreigners and marauders so that now women could walk safely without cover of a veil. He was proud to announce that he had freed women from harm at public venues.

Unfortunately for the Greeks, who developed the greatest and most ideal government in the Western world in the fifth century BCE, didn’t learn appreciation for women from the Egyptians. From the earliest times, Egyptians honored their mothers and grandmothers and loved their wives. Contrarily, the Greeks not only veiled their women but also purposely hid them from view of the community. A woman was not allowed to leave the house unveiled and without a guardian, an escort who would see to her safety. The guardian was also needed to guard her dowry. That is, they protected it from “misuse.”

In ancient Greece, even the most revered philosophers, teachers, and leaders hated, disdained, and/or ignored women. It is shocking that even the early medical expert, Galen, 129–216 CE, touted as the Father of Medicine, hated women. He wrote treatises on childbirth, yet his understanding of reproduction and concern for the human mother were absent. To Galen, woman was simply a birth vessel, an entity for objective study like a laboratory captive.

What was it about Greek men that caused them to take such a negative view of people who would be mothers of their children? Greek wives bore children, built a home, fed, clothed, and nursed the family—and all who served the family––to health. They personally prepared the dead for burial. They did not eat meals with their husbands, and most disgustingly, they were not named until they died. Greek men gathered in the agora, harangued with decision-makers, exercised in the gymnasium, and played with the hetairai and lower-class prostitutes. The much-celebrated symposia, gatherings of musicians, entertainers, lovers—both men and women—and elaborate gourmet fare, were for the men. Because of the lascivious nature of the entertainment, wives, and respectable women were not allowed.

If the ancient Greeks had no reason to refer to the “Original Sin” of Eve,  what other excuse did they have to disdain women? Why has the primitive condition—the suspicion, the hatred, and the abuse in some lands lasted for millennia?  Greek myths clearly show that men had much to fear in women for their magical powers over men, particularly sexual. Did Greek men fear that if women were free to work in society, go to market, sell their wares, or travel, they would learn that the entire world did not cloister their women? Were they afraid women would connect with each other and rise up against the treacherous seclusion and demand freedom?  For that matter, in current events unfolding, will newly-encumbered Afghan women and men rebel even at the cost of life itself? This is a serious point to ponder.

As non-persons, Greek women were not able to spend their own dowry money, inherit money or lands from their families, or conduct legal business on their own. Their wishes were entirely at the mercy of the man who governed them: the father, husband, son, or guardian. Freedom in that “democracy” was not for women. In the land that developed democracy––that is, government “of the people”––women were not allowed to vote or take part in any governmental matter. Further, they were not to be seen and not to be heard. They were not considered a part of the people––the demos.

Not much has changed in today’s conquering neo-tribal groups like the Taliban, ISIS-K, Al-Qaeda, and other similar communities that invade and push newly-struggling democratic emerging countries, like Afghanistan, backward to primitive mores and rude standards for women.

At what point will the people––women and men––demand freedom? Moreover—just as important—why do active women’s groups in the Western world continue to keep silent about the mistreatment of women elsewhere? Why is there no overwhelming cacophony of women’s outcry in the free world?

Excerpts from Power Women: Lessons from the Ancient World.

P.D. Sargent, September 12, 2021

With the successful takeover of Afghans by the Taliban, girls and women are forced to resume their lives under ancient tradition––removal of their very identity under cover of the burka.

Back to Burkas, Rape, and Child Brides 

In addition to ever-evolving plague, another world-wide tragedy has occurred in our lifetime. Because of poor planning, poor timing, American citizens and native interpreters have been left stranded in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Desperate to get out, scores of people clung to departing aircraft, dropping to their deaths as the planes took off. Thousands more have been told to “shelter in place until …”––until what? There was no immediate plan in place to rescue them.

James Carafano, Vice President of Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation, and Walid Phares, Fox News Security Analyst, joined The Faulkner Focus to discuss the collapse of the Afghan government.

They were assured that despite the Taliban’s history of oppressing women under its strict interpretation of Sharia law, Taliban spokesman, Mujahid, pledged that the terrorist group would protect the rights of women––“within the limits of Islam.” Tyler O’Neil, Fox News, August 18, 2021.

But women, who have worked tirelessly to promote decency and rights of women for the past two decades, had harsh words for the international community. After a botched American withdrawal and the Taliban’s rush to retake the country, in a media briefing between the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Mark Milley, an unnamed Afghan woman, who runs an NGO, non-governmental organization, in Afghanistan, said, “We are seeing everything we have built so hard––piece by piece––lost. Our twenty years of gains and hard work vanished.”

`           Disheartened, she continued, “The world betrayed Afghanistan, legitimized the savages, and brought them into power.” Further, “I am still in shock. Afghans, especially women, will face a very new world. A world of fear, destruction, misery, and endless pain.” Associated Press, August 18, 2021.

What is Sharia Law?

Derived from the Koran and other holy writings, Islamists obey instructions from The Law. One Sharia tenet is for women to dress simply, conservatively, in full hijab. It was not so long ago that I read in a national newspaper that a woman, driving a car in burka garb, was pulled out of her automobile and killed because her wrists were showing.

The word conservative has different meanings. Compared to Westerners’ present slovenly dress––anything goes­­––wear jeans to church, wear jeans with holes deliberately burned or ripped into the fabric, wear sleeveless tee shirts designed to look like underwear anywhere at any time. By contrast, women and girls of 1950s, America were indeed conservatively dressed in blouses and skirts, bobby socks, and sturdy shoes––or heels and hose–– with hair neatly styled. With Western women, freedom of attire has become license.

Now that terrorists have infiltrated Afghanistan, the Taliban have announced that women should dress conservatively and wear hijab. In a BBC interview of an anonymous Kabul University student, she said people are wearing the burka and hijab out of fear. She told the BBC how the dreams she hoped to fulfill have been replaced by fears for her future survival in just a matter of days.

“It’s something that I can’t put into words, honestly. Everything, everything that I dreamed of, everything that I ever worked for: my dignity, my pride, even my existence as a girl, my life ––they are all in danger. Who knows how long it would take them to come and search house-by-house and take girls––probably rape them?”
Contemplates Suicide

Desperation overwhelmed her as she confided, “I may have to kill myself when they come to my home. I’ve been talking to my friends, this is what all of us, all of us, are planning to do. Death is better than being taken by them.” BBC News, August 19, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58270423

Destroying evidence of having lived a normal life of freedom, she said, “I burnt all of my university papers and documents. I burnt all my notes of achievements and certificates. I did it on our balcony. I have a lot of books, lovely books, that I was reading. I have hidden them all.”

She added, “I deactivated my social media accounts. I was told it was too dangerous to have posts on social media or even to be on social media anymore. Apparently, the Taliban checks posts and find us through them.”

The terrified co-ed discussed the history of her defiance. “Facebook was the main problem because I was active there. I had old posts saying that the Taliban couldn’t do anything, that I will stand up to them, that they cannot stop my right to education, they cannot lock me up at home. I called them terrorists. They were offensive posts to them, surely.”

Burn Your Success

Another successful young woman, a winning athlete, Afghan’s former women’s soccer captain, Khalida Popal, urges players to delete their social media accounts, erase public identities, destroy their photos, and burn their National Team uniforms and kits to maintain safety. She said, “All those achievements, to build up women’s sports, all those dreams are just wasted.” Hope for these young women who used their sport to generate activism against the Taliban fades as they look outside their windows into the face of their enemies. @Reuters http://reut.rs/3CXILXO

As days-by-painful-days elapse, many Afghan citizens cannot leave without passports, without money. Some relinquish their children to those who are able to leave in crammed-past-capacity air transport. The poorly executed withdrawal of troops opened the gates of waiting terrorists who will interpret their Law to control the people, especially girls and women. For them life has ended. Twenty years of relative freedom returns to daily damning the very soul of women. As long as terrorists reign, nine-year-old girls will be married to forty-year-old men, single and married women––old and young–– will be exposed to open rape, beatings, caning, stoning, and beheading. Careers and business success will die. And so will the hopes and dreams of women.

October 6. 2021

Much has happened since I began research on the Power Women series in 1993.  So many interesting books to read, so many histories to scour for hints and glimpses of women who lived, participated, and thrived in ancient times. Books I. Realities, and II, Expressions, along with Book III, Egypt, are complete and edited, waiting to find a publisher. Book IV, China, is still in progress, and Book V, Japan, is ready for editing.

Encapsulated below are contents of Books I––V.

Book I  REALITIES:  Women’s Lives in Antiquity: Survival, Status, and Success

Empress Livia Augustus denied highest honors, Roman Wife, Lucretia, raped by intrusive Etruscan Prince. Egyptian Queen Tiye I in charge of husband lavish harem, Queen Weret-Imtes instigates Harem Conspiracy and death of a pharaoh. Macedonian Queen Olympias adept at snake handling and political power.

Book II  EXPRESSIONS: Women’s Roles, Vocations, and Labors in Antiquity

Shang Dynasty’s General and Priestess, Fu Hao, Builds an Army of 10,000. Deborah, Hebrew Judge, Prophet, and Warrior bravely leads massive army and saves her people. Sinful Judaean Queen, Herodias, sues for divorce, demands death of John the Baptist.

Book III EGYPT: Intrepid Queens of Ancient Egypt: Women Pharaohs of Dynasty I Through the Ptolemaic Period

Pharaohs Arsinoë II, Hatshepsut, Cleopatra VII shake up their worlds

Book IV CHINA: From Concubinage, Empresses Achieve the Pinnacle of Power

“Emperor” Wu and Empress Cixi introduce Asia to the West, breaking with centuries of tradition

Book V   JAPAN: Empresses of Ancient Wa – Land of Mystery and Magic,
to Shōguns and Powerful Women Samurai

Shamanesse Himiko impresses powerful Chinese Emperor. Warrior Tomoe Gozen, battles the Shōguns. Buddhist Nun, Suiko, successfully reigned thirty-five years.

Enheduanna was not the only Conqueror’s daughter to represent him in his absence. In the Third Intermediate Period, Libyans and Nubians who at last had their revenge for centuries of conflict ruled Egypt, 1065-525 BCE. Daughters, nieces, or sisters of conquerors held a secondary office for women in the Temple of Amun at Karnak in Egypt. The office was designed to assist the pharaoh’s rule in what might be the longest chain of cities in the world––Egypt. They ruled Thebes as their pharaoh brothers were busy at war. Care to guess why the rulers would choose their daughters instead of their sons to share rule?

Maatkare, the chaste daughter of Pinudjem I, a Priest King, combined the roles of God’s Wife and Chief of the Priestesses of Amun, in one title. From Dynasty XXI through XXVI, virginal daughters of the royal house who selected their successor by adoption held the position of Divine Adoratrice. These privileged royal women offered sacrifices, adoration, or reenacted age-old rituals in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. They ruled in the absence of their brother, father, or uncle who sponsored them to the office. With her brother Takelot III, Shepenwepet I shared privileges of rule over Thebes and, like Enheduanna, she maintained the power of Chief Priest. Amerdis I, daughter of Kashta sister of Piye, built her own mortuary monument. Others like Shepenwepet II, daughter of Piye and sister of Taharka built two chapels at the Temple at Karnak and other sacred edifices. Under the Kushite/Nubian kings, the Divine Adoratrices had power equal to the royal governor of Thebes. In Nubia rule by powerful queens was not uncommon.

Nitocris III, daughter of Psamtik I ruled as long as 70 years. Her successor and daughter of Psamtek II, Ankhnesneferibre, reigned 60 years. In 525, the Persians invaded and conquered Egypt. Nitocris II, daughter of the unfortunate Amasis II, reigned until they took over Thebes. With her short rule, the office of Divine Adoratrice was over. On the other hand, with the ruling of the Libyans and the Nubians for six hundred forty years rule by native Egyptians was also over.

In the 5 ^th millennium BCE, from Sumer, one of the world’s earliest, most creative civilizations, sprang spiritual and cultural achievements. Among their many “firsts,” they established the first cities, schools, bicameral Congress, tax reduction, irrigation and agricultural techniques. Sumer was cradle of the first writing; moral ideals, proverbs, sayings, hymns and elegies; the first historian; love song; sex symbolism; cosmology; a book of healing; and the first Farmer’s Almanac. When the Babylonians—followed by the vicious Assyrians—conquered, they overcame the lands and people and spread Sumer’s great achievements to the world.

Sargon the Great conquered Sumer’s city states in the 23^rd and 24^th centuries BCE. He is also famous as the father of Enheduanna, the high priest whom he put in charge of the priests in the temples of two great cities Ur and Uruk. Imagine the consternation of the priests to be governed by a woman! Her administration of the temples kept the cities loyal as Sargon ranged throughout Mesopotamia adding to his vast empire. “Who controls the priests controls the nation.”

Try as they might, misogynists have, since ancient times, tried to tame the dragon, the monstrous female serpent, forcing it into submission and euphemism. However, what they have really accomplished is to drive it underground to its cave, where it growls, and gnaws, and grinds its teeth in the heart and collective memory of every woman. When it has the least opportunity, it leaps like lightning, lashing its armored tail upon the solid ground of betrayal and abuse, and unleashes its fiery fury on all the minions of the collective Xerxes’s, Jasons, Agamemnons, and Philips of the world.

Anger is always a manifestation of fear turned outward, so when the order of the private world—where it has been cloistered—is disturbed or threatened, the dragon invades the public world from which she was banished. When vengeance and retribution have been satisfied, sparks from the fiery spirit subside, the private world is restored to order, and the dragon sleeps—always with one eye open.

© P.D. Sargent, Power Women: Lessons From the Ancient World.

Imagine that you were born a woman two thousand, three thousand, or even five thousand years ago. Transport yourself through the haze of the millennia, and the experience of the ages, to a life very different from your expectations of the twenty-first century.

Let us pretend that as a girl of marriageable age—thirteen or fourteen—you were given away to a man of thirty or older; to live in his house under his rules with no rights, respect, or consideration from the husband or his family, whom you were expected to serve the rest of your life.

Picture your anxiety as you await the birth of your first child remembering that your childhood friend, also newly married, died early trying to give birth even though her body had not matured enough to release the child. Would her agony be yours as well?

Let us suppose that at sometime in your life you had ideas that another man was kinder or more attractive than your abusive, demanding, and hostile husband. You wonder that there is no recourse to your pain, your servitude, or your humiliation. Yet you fully understood that any action you—or he—might take would justify your husband to scourge you and turn you out to the community for public stoning. You also realize that if anyone thinks you had even touched the man you might face the same end.

Envision that you were born excessively beautiful, that wealthy men, kings, sultans, and emperors vied for your hand in marriage. That after an elaborate wedding ritual, you were added to their collection of other great beauties from far off lands to await your turn for the opportunity to please the Great One whose seed might make you famous. Knowing that your beauty was both a blessing and a curse, you knew that if your husband died in battle you would have the distinction of being a trophy bride for the repugnant, alien victor.

Finally, envision that your husband died. Your choice would be whether to throw yourself upon his funeral pyre, joining him to serve in the afterlife, or to hope that the son of your body would remember your loving guidance and feed and care for you as the guardian that all women must have. Your work never done, you would be expected to serve his household needs, to eat very little, to stay out from underfoot, and be grateful.

If you are a man, and cannot envision such a life, think about the ancient Hebrew Morning Prayer that ends with “I thank thee, O Lord, that thou hast not created me a heathen…a slave…or a woman.”

That women could survive such a past—moving forward with strength of spirit, determination, and hope—to succeed as monarchs, leaders, and warriors in a difficult world, is the basis for modern woman’s morning prayer, “Thank you God that I am a woman, a Power Woman”

***

Point to Ponder:

We marvel that in some place in the world today such conditions still exist. How women in uncivilized societies will free themselves from their bonds is yet another story.