The Lenten Musings 43
Read: Romans 16
Today is International Women's Day. On this day people often, tend to remember
women who have made a mark in their field and have been channels of
transformation and change. But there are some who tend to be relegated to the
sidelines and often forgotten because their battles have been long drawn and
they are still fighting their battle. On this day, I believe I need to
bring to our attention the life and struggle of Irom Sharmila, human rights
activist from Manipur, India. Sharmila is fondly called as the Iron Lady of
Manipur and she has been on fast for the last 12 years. Fasting to demand the
repeal of a controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which provides the
security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without any warrant. She
undertook this fast on November 2, 2000 when she witnessed to the killing
of 10 people at a bus stop near her home. Three days into her hunger strike,
Sharmila was arrested on charges of attempted suicide, sent to a prison
hospital and put on a nasal drip. In fact the charges of attempted suicide is
still foisted on her and a few days back when she had to attend the court
proceedings, she told the court that " I don't want to commit suicide.
Mine is a non-violent protest. It is my demand to live as a human being. I love
life. I do not want to take my life. I want justice and peace".
Today, the 40 year old Sharmila is frail but very stoic and full of resolve to
continue her hunger strike. Sharmila does not come on the front page of the
news magazines nor on the news channel, may be because for the channels her
fight for justice may not have the ingredients to boost the star rating of the
channels or the news agencies. But she is remembered very passively once in a
while. People tend to take her fight for justice and peace as something not
serious and an issue that they are not interested as the issues related to her
hunger strike has nothing to do with them. In a day when you will have number
of discussions and symposium on empowering woman, the greatest discrimination
that a society could do to people like Sharmila, is to take her and her
fight for granted. We don't want to be serious about her and her cause
because the very attitude that a patriarchal society tends to promulgate
is to put certain boundaries both in life and in our perceptions with regards
to the way woman has to function, in family, church and society. Unless those
boundaries are not broken or widened, woman like Sharmila and host of other
unknown women who are struggling for justice and peace, will always be
relegated to the sidelines of the society.
Apostle Paul has been vociferously condemned and criticized
for his writings about his stand on woman and their role in the church. But
this criticism comes when we do not comprehensively study Paul's epistles and
his attitudes in contextual terms and understanding. In Romans 16:1,2, we find
Paul recommending Phoebe, one who serves the church in Cenchreae. The Apostle
Paul addresses Phoebe, in Greek as Deacon of the Church. Thus you find a very
unique contribution of the church in the early years of its existence of
appointing woman as deacons. Thus you had woman deacons like Phoebe who must
have been appointed by the apostles and had an office of service. People may
tend to misinterpret the word used to describe Phoebe as "one who serves
the church". The word used in Greek is "diakonon" and is both
masculine and feminine accusative form of the noun, when translated in English
is deacon and also could denote the word servant. Thus, the early church
had no problems in appointing woman as deacons to serve the church. However,
today the very understanding of deacon has changed and also its gender
affiliations. Deacons were meant as a position to serve in the church, but
today it is considered as an office of authority and position. When the word
deacon became a position of authority and office, came the denial of woman from
this office. Male could be a deacon since it is a position of authority and
power, while woman should not have position and authority and hence the best
way to deny woman authority and position is to restrict the functioning of
woman, by consciously limiting their role to the other English translation of
deacon- a servant. Man as a deacon is a position of authority, while woman is
considered more as a servant or one who is consciously condemned to do the job
of service. It is this type of deliberate misinterpretation of biblical truths
and historical facts that denigrates the role of the woman in the church and
the society. On this women's day, let us consciously rise above such
hollow and lopsided interpretations of biblical truths and work in such a way
that church and society could break or broaden its boundaries so that everyone
irrespective of one's gender is able to contribute meaningfully to the growth
of the church.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla