Lilith, Eva and the others (dedicated to Sanie)

One ordinary day in my office, just as I was about to take off, the door bell rang. A crying absent minded woman showed up looking for help. After being through hell and high water she decided to put an end to it by getting a divorce. Even torn apart she took a brave start and agreed to the whole procedure. Raised as a traditional Muslim she was continuously judged by her family for ending as a divorcee and as a result - she was excluded from her father’s will. In stead of being quiet, smile, obey the rules and knuckle down she took control of her own life. She didn’t honor their request for silence and so she became a sinner.

This started me thinking that it‘s nothing but history repeating. It started when God created out of clay the first man – Adam. After doing so, God realized it’s not good for man to be alone and he forms Lilith – the woman. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way, they were equal, and she refuses to submit to him. Her sin was request for being equal. Later on Eve, who was created to be Adam’s wife and helpmate succumbs to the serpent’s temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil by sharing the fruit with Adam. She was cursed and expelled from the Garden of Eden. Her sin was being curious.

Thousands years fast forward a woman in Saudi Arabia who was victim of gang rape was sentenced to six months imprisonment for violating laws on segregation of the sexes. Even though the woman was kidnapped, locked in a car and driven away in a farm where being raped by 7 men, due to the law of Sharia she was punished on the grounds of being alone with non related male. Her sin was being physically weaker.

Rape of woman is systematically used as a weapon of war. It already happened in Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina . During the war in Iraq a bold woman called Yanar Mohammed started a revolution by fighting for women’s rights. She was organizing protests, demonstrations, street actions trying to gather as many men and women as possible in order to spread the message of peace and a right of choice free of coercion. After no longer than 24 h she had received threat messages with the title “killing Yanar”. Her sin was being brave.

But, it seems like that there is not an end to it. No matter if the woman claims her rights, trying to bring the best of herself, fighting for equality, a better reality she cannot remain pure in the eyes of the society. One way or another she breaks her “responsibility” not to sin and ends like a sinner. At the end of the day, she even can be guilty of attracting an attention because of her beauty. Just like in the movie “Malena”.