January 15, 2004
Religion, Rape and War
by Iris J. Stewart
c. 2004
In 1993 I wrote an article about the rape of between 20, 000 and 50,000 women during the war between Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia that was being reported in print and television media. I said, "Because of the sheer magnitude of suffering, the world community can no longer pretend it is not happening, and pressure is finally being brought on the world community to intervene." Well, I was wrong. According to the Human Rights Watch Organization's 2/22/01 report, (www.hrw.org), only three soldiers were tried, convicted and sentenced (to an average of twenty years) by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. However, it was the first time that an international tribunal brought charges solely for crimes of sexual violence against women, and treated them as "crimes against humanity," according to their report.
According to a newspaper article in the Sacramento Bee 3/29/93, a 1990 Department of Defense study of more than 20,000 military personnel showed that nearly two out of three enlisted women were sexually harassed or assaulted in the preceding year.
To help us understand the motives and twisted reasoning behind the sanctioning of this heinous crime against women by military leaders, we need to understand how the patriarchal religions contribute to the root cause. What we are witnessing is a modern version of a very old custom which has been going on since ancient times. Systematic rape was institutionalized and blessed by the Patriarchs of the Old Testament as a war tactic, and as a method of revenge and vengeance. And since women were held as property, the enemy's women were taken as booty of war.
In reading the Bible, one gets the impression that rape was just part of business as usual. It is full of accounts of rape of women by warriors, gangs, passer-bys, fiancés, fathers and kinsmen. For example, Moses followed what he claimed were Jehovah's instructions and took vengeance on the Midianites. When the booty and captives were brought to him, Moses instructed the army to "kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him." But the young virgins, "keep alive for yourselves." As recorded in the book of Numbers (Chapter 31), the Lord also told him to share all the loot with the priests: "16,000 girls (of whom 32 went to the Levites)."
The book of Deuteronomy gives very specific instructions on the conduct of soldiers in war. Chapter 20 says, "But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself…" If the warrior-soldier-hero "sees among the captives a beautiful woman, and has a desire for her," he can take her home, shave her head, change her clothes and pare her nails. After a month he can "go in unto her," a quaint biblical euphemism for sex, or in this case, rape.
The threat of rape of the enemy's women was used freely in war posturing. Isaiah claimed God gave him a message to pass on to the Babylonians, which included, "Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished." No idle threat, that.
To Every Man a Damsel or Two
Taking women as booty was commonly accepted. Judges 5 relates the account of a mother, worried about her son's delay in returning from battle, "Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two…"
The incidence of men using women as bait to protect their own asses from gang rape appears in a couple of places in the Bible. Genesis 19 tells what happens when a couple of angels visit Lot in Sodom. A gang of Sodomites&emdash;that's where the term sodomy comes from&emdash;want to have their way with the angels. Lot is appalled: "do not so wickedly." Instead, he offers his two virgin daughters to them , saying, "do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing."
In Judges (Chapter 19), a Levite priest went to fetch his concubine, who had escaped and returned to her home. Her father, of course, was more than happy to give her back to her master. On the return trip to his home, the Levite had to spend the night in the home of a Benjamenite. when "…a gang of sex perverts gathered around the house and began beating at the door and yelling at the old man to bring out the man who was staying with him so they could rape him." If you were taught that men were the protectors of their families, you should know that this cowardly father was more intent on saving the man, "for he is my guest." "Here, take my virgin daughter and this man's wife. I'll bring them out and you can do whatever you like to them&emdash;but don't do such a thing to this man." The gang was still frothing at the mouth for the Levite, but when he pushed his concubine out to them, they turned to abusing her, "taking turns raping her until morning."
"Next morning when the Levite opened the door to be on his way, he found her there, fallen down in front of the door with her hands digging into the threshold. "Well, come on," he said, "'Let's get going.' But none answered." So he threw her body across the donkey's back and took her home. There he took a knife and cut her body into twelve parts and sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. The purpose of this unbelievable barbarity was to rouse the men of the tribes against the men of Benjamin. When questioned, the Levite never mentioned that he had sacrificed her in his stead to the mob &endash; just that the mob was trying to kill him. The men did get all roused up, and there ensued a most bloody battle. It was just part of an ongoing feud between two gangs, however, Nowhere is it suggested that they went to war to avenge the woman.
In another story, after killing most of the men and all the women of Benjamin, the Israelites suddenly became concerned about how to get more wives for the surviving men, since they had sworn not to let them have any of their own women. The Benjamites were a part of the twelve-tribe system and they didn't want their lineage to be totally depleted. They solved the problem by slaying all the women and men of another tribe, the Jabes-gilead, except for 400 virgins whom they gave to the men of Benjamin. Also they told the men of Benjamin that there was a yearly festival in Shiloh, in Canaan, and that they should go and lie in wait in the vineyards: "and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh." Words like wife, concubine, virgin, girl were all used rather carelessly and interchangeably in the Old Testament translations. Certainly the word "wife" here is an attempt to clean up the dastardly deed. This horrendous chapter of murder, rape, mutilation and kidnap ends with this rationalization: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
Raping a woman is a message from man to man, warrior to warrior. One reads that the raped woman brings shame and dishonor on the "family," but what they really mean is that the man feels ashamed because another man has "defiled" his property. So, one can see why King David's son, Absalom (II Samuel 16) would heed the advice of his counselor, Hushai, when he said, "Go in unto (meaning rape) thy father's concubines…and all Israel shall hear that thou are abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong." What a way to get back at his old man! David, in typical, twisted patriarchal sense of justice, consequently locked away the concubines for life&emdash;he wouldn't have them because they had been defiled&emdash;but no one else was going to have them, either.
A raped Muslim woman today must also fear for her life in her own family, as her male relatives may kill her to "save face" or "family honor". .In September 1992, Islamic community leaders in Bosnia issued a seven-page appeal to the world regarding the rapes, noting, among the "mass crimes on Muslim people," that "the most painful is what has been done to their mothers, daughters, and wives. Life is greatly valued by the Muslim philosophy, but honor is above all else."
Biblical precedent for this is also found in Mosaic law; the Bible regards rape within the community as a crime committed by one man against the other man's property, and does not consider it as a crime against the woman's person. If the woman is betrothed or married, the crime is more offensive, and the punishment more severe. Thus, if a virgin is engaged and "a man find her in the city, and lie with her…" they are both to be stoned because she didn't cry out, and because he "humbled his neighbor's wife" (Deuteronomy 22). However, if the virgin is not betrothed, then the rapist must pay her father a sum of money and marry her (Exodus 22) because she is now "damaged goods". Another illustration is found in II Samuel 13. Tamar was raped by her half-brother, Amnon, who then "hated her exceedingly." Recognizing that she must marry him, when he threw her out and bolted the door, she actually protested: "…this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me." Her humiliation was very public. She had to remove her robes of "diver colors" because "such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins' apparel."
In a recent television report, the Kuwaiti sheik smugly tells the reporter that his Philippine maid is "just hysterical" when she accuses him of rape. The court says she is a whore because he raped her four times. Precedent was set thousands of years ago in Leviticus 19: "And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; he shall bring a trespass offering … and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him."
Controlling Women to Gain Immortality
In order to begin to understand such inhumanity toward women, we need to understand how women became to be viewed as breeders of descendants in order for men to be able to attain a particular kind of "immortality." The patriarchal religions, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem, are all predicated on the men keeping their women under control in order to assure that they can attain immortality through the continuation of their bloodline, passing on of their name and property, through their sons.
Jehovah told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as "the stars in the sky." In Genesis 12, "…the Lord said unto Abraham, unto thy seed will I give this land…You will have a son to inherit everything you own. David was thrilled to receive a similar promise (II Samuel 7) "…and your descendants shall rule this land for generations to come…your son will continue your kingdom into eternity."
Before DNA/RNA testing, the only way for the man to assure that it really was his son, was for him to completely monitor and control his woman or women. A raped woman, bearing the son of the rapist, could conceivably deprive him of that "immortality," in addition to having a living reminder to everyone of how he was humiliated by his enemy; that is, if the woman is allowed to live.
The myth plays to men's egos, and to their fear of annihilation. It is curious that neither this weird concept of a way to become immortal, nor the fact that it really doesn't work, has never been challenged, or even questioned, in the 2,500 years that followed. Islam fell into the trap, also. An Egyptian high court judge, Qusim Amin (1863-1908) wrote the following: "Islamic law favors men in one area only&emdash;polygamy. The reason is obvious and is related to the issue of lineage, without which marriage is meaningless."
Rape&emdash;God's Punishment
The prophet, Isaiah (Isaiah 3) threatened the daughters of Zion, who were free and proud (he called them haughty") women. They were probably priestesses, who danced before their Goddess, Sophia, "walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet." In his rage, Isaiah proclaimed that "…the Lord will discover their secret parts," an obvious reference to rape.
Ezekiel wrote as God in first person, singular, in what is assumed to be an allegory. "Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark…" The ranting and raving, threats and violence have an all too familiar sound of a jealous human male, however. Ezekiel, himself, had two wives who were sisters. One worshiped Assyrian idols (Goddesses?). She found the dashing, beautifully dressed, young soldiers desirable, and "flaunted herself", according to the story. As part of the retaliation, Ezekiel delivered one of his wives into the evil clutches of the Assyrians, who "stripped her and killed her and took away her children as slaves." He said she "received what she deserved." They were his children, too, remember. Hell hath not the fury…
Then the other wife/sister was even worse, and he promised to cut off her nose and ears, leaving her naked and bare. As the bizarre story unfolds, Ezekiel becomes the husband and the Lord tells him he will kill his wife off, but Ezekiel is not to mourn publicly. The next morning, Ezekiel explains to the people that his wife is just a symbol of the destruction of the Temple. A similar thing happens to Hosea (Hosea 2), as the Lord heaps petty and corporal cruelties on his wife, again as a metaphor for the nation of Israel.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, in her book, Woe to the Women&emdash;The Bible Tells Me So, says, "Authorization of grotesque sexual mutilation indicates a pathologically sick hatred for women and their bodies. Is it any wonder that our culture, placing such a high value on the book in which such descriptions are found, regularly produces men who "hear voices" telling them to destroy…?" Many of these men, including Jack the Ripper, often target women whom they call prostitutes.
Although rape is banned under the Geneva Convention, it is not explicitly recognized as a war crime. Even well documented cases have never been investigated or punished. Rape of American soldiers by fellow soldiers should be prosecuted as the highest treason, as an intent to destroy our own defense force. Madeleine Albright as the United States delegate to the United Nations proposed that rape be included and punished as a war crime.
I urge everyone to write all the presidential candidates to make this issue a part of their campaign if they are to receive our support.
References:
Biblical quotes are from the King James version
Quasim Amin, The Liberation of Women, American University of Cairo Press, 1992
Laura Pitter and Alexandra Stigimayer, "Will the World Remember?", Ms. Magazine Vol. III, No. 5
Annie Laurie Gaylor, Woe to the Women &endash; The Bible tells Me So, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Madison, WI 1981
Life Application Bible, Tyndale House Pub., Inc.
Iris J. Stewart is the author of Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance.