How men erased women from world religion for 800 years
Denise Turner
WVoN co-editor
Divine Women, a new TV series, fronted by historian Bettany Hughes, sheds light on how 800 years ago, women were systematically excluded from religious study and practice by men.
She explores several cases of how women were once able to exploit the currency of sacred wisdom with surprising results.
Ninety seven per cent of all global deities were female; meaning that for the majority of human experience, man has worshipped at the shrine of the goddess, not the god.
Women were recognized for their wisdom, but this been largely forgotten.
Hughes sets out to find out why, by examining various cases such as that of Theodora, empress of Byzantium.
Though not high born, she started out as an erotic dancer, Theodora’s understanding of biblical wisdom enabled her to make sound judgments; she legislated furiously and founded safe houses for prostitutes, outlawed pimps and introduced penalties for rape.
In partnership with Justinian, her husband and co-ruler, Theodora also established the Justinian code; a system of law that still underpins much of European law.
Islam also acknowledged the important role of women in implementing God’s instruction. Hadiths, sayings attributed to the prophet Muhammad, urge women and men to seek knowledge.
One of the first recorded universities in the world, the Qarawiyyin University in Fez, was built in the ninth century by a Muslim Tunisian woman, Fatima al-Fihri.
Over 25 years, Muhammad Akram Nadwi from the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies has found 8,500 female scholars.
They flourished in the early years of Islam, and in the 12th century in reaction to the crusades, when women preached in the great mosques of Damascus, Medina, Cairo and Jerusalem.
The story was similar in the East. The Asian matriarch Wu Zetian should be a household name today, her seventh century achievements were so remarkable.
She led the invasion of Korea and Tibet, reformed the administrative system, adopted Buddhism and adopted printing; 700 years before the Europeans.
But within decades of her death her memory had been eradicated and her memorial stone at Qianling in China’s Shanxi province remains blank.
This golden age for women’s sacred wisdom was short-lived.
All of these women have been forgotten because they were systematically written out of history by men in the 12th century when universities became centres of learning.
Divine Women started on BBC2 at 9pm (UK time), Wednesday 11 April.
Is it going to be shown in the US, or maybe put on DVD for purchase? This sounds fascinating!!
Ah, not sure, sorry. Showing on BBC so may not be exported elsewhere. I watched the first one which was good but I found the presenter a bit offputting.