Civilized Women

Here is a blip from a recent article found on Dr. Al Mohler’s  blog.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played the media like a musical instrument, greeting the captives just prior to their release. The Muslim world loved it. Tragically, the most damaging element of Ahmadinejad’s media triumph was handed to him by the Royal Navy in the person of Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman among the captives and the mother of a 3-year-old daughter.

Her presence among the captives taken from the British patrol vessel gave Ahmadinejad the opportunity to make this observation:

“You will know that among the detainees there is one lady who is a mother of a child. Why is it that the most difficult work like patrolling at sea should be given to a woman?

“Why is there no respect for motherhood? Why does the West not value its women?”

Ahmadinejad’s questions still reverberate around the Muslim world. Nothing could more effectively demonstrate the immorality of Western values before Muslim eyes than this — a mother of a little girl sent as a warrior.

As you step back and look at the differences between the Western and Muslim world one of the key difference is the treatment of women, and neither worldview on the topic is totally correct.  We think we are superior and far more intelligent because we have given women “equal” rights and have allowed them to function equal to men in nearly every way.  They think they are superior because they view the woman’s place as in the home raising children, or at the least, certainly not as a warrior.  Funny thing about this?  We consider ourselves more civilized, more educated, and yet we think the elevation of women is to treat them as equals to men.  My wife is not my equal.  There are many ways in which she is superior to me and there are ways in which I am superior to her, and much of this comes because she is a woman and I am a man.  Why can’t we, who are so educated, see the difference?