feminine-genius

An odd form of chivalry

Turkish men don't have a problem with using prostitutes, but they want them to be, well, professional. They have proved to be adept at discerning the difference between women who want to sell their bodies and those who have been coerced to enter the trade.

In the past six months, 100 women - mostly from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania or Russia - have been rescued from sex slavery and Turkish police have broken up 10 trafficking networks.

There are two reasons for these results. A charge-free hotline was set up in May by the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for women to call for help. It is staffed by multi-lingual operators who try to pinpoint where the women are - and then send in the police.

But the second, more unexpected, factor is the chivalry of the Turkish brothel client. Since the hotline started, 74 per cent of tip-offs have come from men: customers who have learned to spot the difference between a professional prostitute, and someone who's been forced into it.

"I've been very surprised," said Marielle Lindstrom, head of the IOM in Turkey. "We haven't noticed this anywhere in Europe. Turkish men seem to have an old-fashioned view of women. They don't mind using prostitutes, but they want the woman to be doing this willingly. If she's found not to be doing it willingly ... it affects their pride."

I suppose we should be grateful for this twist. It's a start in acknowledging the importance of free will. If these men help to send traumatised women home, or at least free them from this horrid captivity, that's a net good. Now as for the culture which condones free commerce in sex ... well, that's the next battle.

Tiny Infant -- Small Gestures

Beautiful commentary on the essential acts of charity which reflect the Divine Gift:

Christmas, then, is the feast of the Lowliness of God, a feast in which the small, extraordinary miracles of everyday life are celebrated.

If this is really the case, I am sure, then, that it was Christmas for Leyla, a poor Muslim widow who, with generosity, care and affection, prepared handmade biscuits in “industrial quantities” for her neighbours’ 12 children – even poorer than herself – so that they could celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy.

And it was Christmas for the 10 Christian children who gathered to pray around Baby Jesus in a crib they made from coloured paper throughout Advent. As they prayed, their peers played ball in the neighbourhood alleys, just like any other day, unaware of the great event unfolding.

And then there was the group of youth and elderly people, children, men and women, Christians and Muslims who defied the rain and cold of the night to celebrate Christmas Mass in ‘St Peter’s Grotto’, gathered around the bishop of Anatolia, Mgr Padovese. I certainly believe they relived the anticipation felt by the shepherds, that they too experienced the need for the goodwill and peace of God – even if perhaps they did not have a pre-tailored, precise idea of what to expect. Did the Light of Love enter their open hearts?

It was Christmas for Betul too, who shared a chicken on a spit, vegetables and some bananas with two orphans Gemma and Yusuf in their home (a little more than a shack), while a grand Christmas gala dinner was under way in the city’s most renowned hotel for all the civil and religious authorities.

It was Christmas for Chandrika thanks to the generosity of her Muslim neighbour. The Sinhalese Christian, who was abandoned by her Turkish husband, has had no news about her parents and other relatives since the terrible tsunami last year. Her neighbour welcomed Chandrika into her home and allowed her to watch a Sri Lankan television channel via satellite all night, so that she could enjoy Christmas celebrations in her country and through her language.

Meanwhile, in Altinozu, a country in the hills around Antioch, the entire Orthodox community gathered in small groups in individual homes and “heard” Midnight Mass in Arabic on television, watching a Lebanese, Catholic channel. And Christmas thus came into their families too.

And who knows how many other Christmases – here in Antioch, in this corner of Turkey, and in the whole world – passed unnoticed by man, but certainly seen by God…

Small gestures, perhaps miracles which will not change the course of history, but surely they will leave their mark in the hearts of those who know how to guard them and pass them on.

Give us the grace, Lord, to be able to catch a glimpse of your Christmases in our life (in the suffering, exhaustion, sadness or in the constant everyday boredom) so that the Peace, Hope and Goodwill of Christmas will never be less in us and around us.”

Women and HIV

In this Christmas Octave leading to the Feast of the Holy Family, let us ponder those who are afflicted. What would chastity and fidelity do to alleviate the harms of this scourge? What would charity and generosity of neighbours (and strangers) do to help those who suffer? How can we bring Providence to bear on this tragedy?

(For the record, Uganda is making a tremendous difference with its approach!)

Empowering Women (not)

Women have more power than they imagine. They can single-handedly effect mighty meteorological changes through their sins:

A year after the [Indonesian] disaster which many see as a divine punishment, emboldened Islamic hardliners are doing their best to eradicate sin — and women are their prime targets.

With reconstruction slow, irrational fears of a second tsunami high, and nearly 500,000 still homeless along 500 miles of coastline, the stern message falls on fertile ground. A Sharia police force modelled on Saudi moral enforcers enthusiastically seeks out female wrong doers for public humiliation.

The Wilayatul Hisbah, which loosely translates as “Control Team”, has arrested women, lopped off their hair, and paraded them in tears through the streets while broadcasting their sins over a megaphone.

How handy. Reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve, when he was confronted by God. Sayeth Adam, "SHE made me do it." Back to the mysogyny of the previous post. Wrong and bad, and more justification of the oppression of women. God does eventually allow sin to take its natural course, which leads to death and destruction, but this imam has not connected the dots properly.

"Misogyny is the root of tyranny"

How true this is, although I don’t know if these women understand the depth and wisdom of their chant. It came in response to the broadcast of this testimony before the US Senate:

Phyllis Chesler, noted feminist, told a Senate hearing hosted by the American Committee for Democracy in the Middle East that lasting democracy could never come to the region without the support and participation of Arab women.

Chesler's testimony on "Gender Apartheid in Iran and the Muslim World" was broadcast across the Arab world in a Web cast and translated into Arabic, Kurdish, and Farsi.

She spoke of the urgent need to stand up for the rights of women living under oppressive Islamist regimes, stressing that that the pursuit of equal rights and treatment for women in oppressive regimes will boost the Bush administration's strategy to promote democracy in the Middle East.

Interestingly, the fundamental mysogyny of original sin led John Paul II to write “The Original Unity of Man and Woman,” in which he outlines a study of the early chapters of the book of Genesis to discover what was the nature of complementarity between the sexes that preceded the Fall.

The women who are upset in the news story above are Afghanis who seek full human rights for women – women they believe are second class citizens in the “gender apartheid” of the type of Islam practiced in Afghanistan. I tentatively agree, though I would have to wait to see what falls under this category of “human rights.” (When feminists move in to “help” oppressed women worldwide, often the battle cry is for contraceptives, access to abortion, no fault divorce, and other unhelpful accoutrements, rather than the basic dignity, access to running water and antibiotics that women yearn for.)

What this chant above does is to work itself backwards into the theology of the body and the stability of the family. If we believe that stable families are the foundation of stable and just societies, then the reverse it true: mysogyny in the home will be the bedrock of tyranny at every level. The latest tragedy attributable to Islam-gone-awry is ample proof of this.

We must be attentive to the plight of women everywhere, especially in the newly emerging democracies of the Middle East. There is a middle ground between religious fascism on one hand and the sexual left on the other, and that middle ground -- championed by Holy Mother Church -- is where women are given their proper dignity and men and children are not seen as the enemy. Prayers for discernment.

Teenager needs prayers

Asking Saint Gianna for the full recovery of this girl with seizures, who is now in intensive care. Thanks.

Gaudete! Christus natus est!

More honored than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, who without stain bore God the Word: you are truly Theotokos; we magnify you.

(Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite)

Icon info

Christ is the remedy to solitude and fear

To Kneel in Bethlehem So Walls May Fall

[Homily of Monsignor Pietri Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio of the United States]

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – For 36 years I travelled the world representing the Holy See but nowhere have I felt the presence of God so close than inside the Nativity Grotto. Here is where the Word of God became a child like me, where He was born like me, where He cried the first time; where he smiled, walked, ate like me. He made Himself small so that His holiness would not scare me, but he also made Himself ‘Emanuel’: “God with us”.

The message sent out from Bethlehem can be summarised as follows: “God loves you despite your unfaithfulness so as to give life its full meaning that you may feel that life is like a mission and a gift.”

Kneeling and worshiping the Child born in Bethlehem can heal the two afflictions of our times: solitude and fear of the future.

Despite having a cellphone in their pockets, men and women today suffer from solitude. Yet, whosoever strongly believes in the Emanuel (“God with us”) of Bethlehem—even when he is under the impression that he has been abandoned by all—knows that his faithful God is still with him. In the end, solitude probably afflicts us because we have left our only faithful friend, the Faithful One: our Lord Jesus.

The other affliction is fear of the future. What shall happen to me? What disease shall I contract? What will be my children’s future? Concern for the future is normal, but believers know that their lives are in God’s hands, a God who loves them. The future may worry them but they can put their trust in the Almighty because they know that the God who loves them will do His best for them.

To kneel in Bethlehem means rediscovering the meaning of the life God gave us; it means we are close to the true source of love and mercy; it means that we are not an accident but are in this world to fulfill the mission God has planned for us.

For Jews, Bethlehem is David, the founder of their kingdom and forerunner of the Messiah they are waiting.

Seen in this light of faith, Bethlehem can and must become a journey of hope into the future.

Bethlehem for the people of Bethlehem:

From a human point of view, being surrounded by an eight-metre (27-ft) wall and the great hardship it imposes are certainly no way to celebrate Christmas for it literally closes off one’s horizons.

However even here, when we kneel before God made man we must pull down the wall of selfishness and open up to others. We must bring down the wall that hides our sins and invoke mercy. We must tear down the wall of our sadness to appeal to the path of joy which is walking with Christ along the steps of our life.

In this sense I wish everyone could humbly kneel before the Child of Bethlehem and find the source of life, in the fullness of life and joy. Merry Christmas!