A Woman's Fallacy

The problem is that women all over the world, and in the society that I know most - my own - are brought up under this oft intangible belief that they are lesser beings, created for the sole purpose of scrificing and pleasing others around them. If they don't have a role to play, women would not exist on their own.

That's the deep, entrenched construct that manifests in such a variety of abusive, bizarre behavior in women, and by extension, their (our!) relationships.

I've never thought of myself as a woman, rather a human, much to the chagrin and the bewilderment of my parents who, despite their tradition-breaking, expected me to be that well-behaved, tea-serving daughter.

It's the tea that always got to me. I could wash the car or sweep the front yard. But the decorated tea! *

I never really made it my problem to be a woman or not. To me, the world was about humanity.

So it's with much surprise, a little trepidation, and much more wild curiosity that I am observing the feminine energy entering my life. What a phase, and how many awkward situations has it got me into already!

But there must really be a time for everything, and it's time for me to detour from the Human to the Feminine.

A few situations I just expected (almost feared) happening, happened. By the time they did, I was ready and afraid no more. (Yes, I am troubled by dealing with people's problems, especially the feminine kind. Yet this subject has started dancing in my life all around me. The time has come, eh!?)

It was all pre-planned by Fate that I would see a book titled Women of Sufism on the bookshelf in South Africa. I took a photo of the cover all Jason Bourne style (it looks suspicious when you're so fascinated with someone else's books!), and I got the book from USA at the beginning of this month.

And what a revelation it is!

Here it is in my hands. I find it so revealing, so life-altering, I'd recommend a copy to any woman who's been brought up to believe that she is a lesser mortal.

This being "a lesser mortal" is all rooted in the myth that Eve came out of Adam's rib.

And that is a patently false myth. In Qur'an's fourth chapter, named "Women," the very first verse declares that we were created from "one self (nafs)," into a pair. Very conveniently, this "nafs" (Arabic for "self") is penciled as "Adam," the masculine man, in translations, albeit parenthetically.

Well, "nafs" in Arabic is feminine.

And Eve never came out of Adam's rib. It is a human-created myth designed to degrade women.

Allah declares often in the Qur'an that "everything is created in pairs." This is the Divine Law. So how could humans have been created as a single man, only upon whose desire woman was created from his rib? Does God ever design like that? Has not Allah invited humans countless times in the Qur'an to study the signs and learn the Design of the Universe? Does this myth tally?

But people do not read. They only assume, at best.

And as someone noted, if Eve indeed follow Adam in the process of creation, then she is the most evolved form of creation. Which essentially means that womanhood is the highest form of creation. Not surprisingly, Allah has preferred a woman (the archetype "mother") three times over a man (the archetype "father") - as even a layperson of a Muslim would know.

So. One of my current missions in life, taking a life on its own, is to study and teach the truth of Femininity, of Womanhood.

May that liberate women from the abusive bondage we have worked ourselves into. And may that, in turn, liberate the entire humanity from its transgression on the Feminine Principle.

Aameen!

* I wrote this as a personal blog about a year ago; back when it was merely a private musing to me, shared with people who personally know me. The tea thing was more of a joke. I actually love making tea. The truth behind that reference is that I do not like performing that task as if it's a "women's duty, to be performed as a slave task." A year later, I take much more pride and pleasure in my femininity. As ever, I believe in experiencing joy in performing the daily tasks, for men or for women. I also have always believed that certain tasks are more suited to women and to men, respectively. Yet we can occasionally and freely cross those boundaries when need or wish be. The Divine Law is not into micro-managing minutae.

Bless you!

(July 25, 2009)