Women of South Africa in the Spotlight Again

Again the situation of women in South Africa is in the spotlight. The notorious Noordt Street taxi rank and the rapes, and sexual molestation of women there; and the horrific gang rape of Ina Bonnett and murder of her son have brought the rights of women and children again to the forefront. We know that we live in a country in which women’s rights are still very much only part of the constitution. Legally we are all equal, however culturally we are not. Every day in this country many women and children are abused. These abuses happen at every level of society, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. As we sit in our churches this Sunday there are those sitting in the congregation who fundamentally do not believe in the equality of men and women. Men who believe that they have greater rights than the women in their lives. Women who believe that they are created less than men.

We should not be surprised, feminism is a very young movement, not more than 150 years old. In that time women have achieved the right to education, to equal job opportunities (although still not necessarily to equal pay), the right to vote, the right to wear short skirts or pants, and fundamentally the right to personal safety, to not be raped or abused, even by husbands or fathers. Yet in our societies these rights are not yet entrenched in the culture. It is not yet abhorrent to rape or abuse. 1 in 4 South African men admitted to raping a women in the Medical Research Council Report 2010. These statistics are horrifying.

If we look to the example of Jesus we are presented with a man who dealt counter-culturally with women. Jesus had friends who were women, Mary and Martha, he spoke to women on the margins of society, the Samaritan woman and Mary Magdalene. He challenged the men of his time to act differently towards women who they regarded as sexually immoral, Mary Magdalene was transformed by Jesus friendship from being ‘the woman caught in adultery’ to becoming the ‘apostle to the apostles’. Jesus in his encounters with women saw them as fully human, as worthy of his time and interest as men. It is to the Samaritan woman, the woman with no husband and  no status in her community, that Jesus reveals himself as the messiah.

Let us explore our own hearts and minds, our deepest held cultural formation. For all our cultures have to some extent oppressed women. Let us as women see ourselves through Jesus eyes, and see the women we are responsible for, our daughters and granddaughters as Jesus would see them. Let us as men truly look at our views of the women in our lives, our mothers, sisters, girl-friends, wives and daughters. Do we help them to become truly the free human beings God created them to be?