Russian Orthodox official upset at modern women

Lashing out at women who “paint [themselves] like a clown”, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin of the Russian Orthodox Church has angered women’s rights groups in Russia with his increasingly bizarre and conservative remarks over the sexual nature of modern women’s clothing:

If [a woman] is drunk … she will provoke [a man] even more. If she is actively inviting contact, and then is surprised that this contact ends with a rape, she is all the more at fault.

Chaplin, who oddly leads the church’s social outreach program, has argued that clothing is not a private matter and should conform with a more conservative style, which he refers to as “Russian.”

The church has responded with mute caution, while the Russian public has found a more entertaining key: “It is not good for a woman to wear only one dress — this has long been considered indecent! A minimum of three dresses worn on top of one another,” one radio commentator quipped.

Source: NYTimes

Ebert on women and religion

Roger Ebert has an interesting post up about patriarchy and religion, particularly Christianity. He posits that Church teachings are less important than the impulses than underwrite them:

I am not concerned so much with Church teachings, but with the way men’s minds work. To put it bluntly, I believe the world is patriarchal because men are bigger and stronger than women, and can beat them up.

But obviously, keeping the dogma around isn’t helping matters:

I watched the debate last week between Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair. Their subject was: “Be it resolved, that religion is a force for good in the world.” The most stimulating thing about the debate was that it was held at all. How often do we ever hear fundamental questions debated in a civil manner between intelligent speakers? Would there be an audience on cable for weekly debates between college teams? In America, debating was the leading intercollegiate sport before the introduction of football.

Blair and Hitchens made points one might agree with, and points one might not. At one point, Hitchens asked Blair a question that hung in the air for a second and went unanswered, because Blair must have had no answer. This was the question:

“Is it good for the world to consider women as an inferior form, as all religions do?”

Palmdale Cult Women Found Alive

A group of thirty-something El Salvador immigrant women were recently found alive after a worried police search, prompted by their husbands reporting an involvement with a possibly suicidal cult leader. It appears that no one was hurt and the women deny any mass suicide event, despite some members having made preparations such as collecting title deeds and social security information together for their families.

While the revelation of minute cult activity in America is not surprising, we cover this news nevertheless to better cultivate an attitude of suspicion in groupthink and highlight the dangers in non-emphereical, non-sketpic belief.

The European Double Standard on the Hijab

Reuters takes a look at Afghan lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail and the continuing battle of European hijab clothing. From the article:

“It is against the very basic element of democracy to restrict a human being from wearing the clothes of his/her choice. These governments better punish those men who force women to wear hijab, but if any woman wears it out of her own wish, there should be no ban on it.”