Quelle ne fut la surprise de mes étudiants-es universitaires lorsqu’ils/elles découvrirent l’existence dans le temple de Bacchus à Baalbek il y a plus de deux millénaires, des rituels de sexualité sacrée arrosés de vin en abondance, dans un lieu VIP incluant les princes et les généraux ainsi que les prêtresses du temple… Quelle ne fut […]
Tag Archives: Religions
The Bershka Skull T-Shirt Controversy in Lebanon!
The following image has been published on Facebook in the last two days, representing a Bershka skull T-Shirt, followed by massive online protests by Lebanese – mostly Christians. Comments like ‘This is humiliating’, ‘a shame’, ‘this is crazy’, ‘people are evil’, etc. accompany the image depicting, as all are stating, the Virgin Mary as the […]
Le Moyen-Orient sans Soumission
Un de mes étudiants universitaires en Théologie émit le commentaire suivant il y a quelques jours: “la liberté individuelle est absente en islam, et est certainement introuvable dans le Coran. De ce fait, il est impossible pour le musulman et la musulmane de relire leurs écritures sacrées selon le contexte dans lequel ils vivent; ils […]
The veil in Ancient Middle Eastern/Western Asian Cultures
Today, veiling is a globally polarizing issue, and a locus for the struggle between contemporary and traditional interpretations of Islam. But veiling was a practice long before Islam. Veiling— of women, of men, and of sacred places and objects—has existed in countless cultures and religions. This article introduces to the use and symbolism of the […]
Rabia Al-Adawiyya,Iraqi Sufi and Poet: on Women's Spiritual Experience
Women’s spiritual experience has been suppressed through much of modern history – considering the historical credence given to the masculine perspective of the divine over the earthier, fleshy, relationship-centered perspective of the feminine – and is only now been recovered in its full richness: Julian of Norwich, England, the Ashanti women of Ghana, Lady Kasa of Japan, […]
Womanhood in Western Asia: A Journey to the Past
“In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world” (Nicholas D. Kristof, in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide). In […]
The Lilith Myth and the Male Fear of Dominant/Equal Women
Following an interesting post by one of Red Lips High Heels authors, Night Shadow, I found a quite interesting analysis of the ‘Lilith Myth’, comparing it to the stories of Adam and Eve, and linking it to a patriarchal husband, a weak submissive wife, and a vindictive dominating ex-wife, while portraying the Male Fear of […]
Ita��s the Season, the Season of Gifts (A Tribute to Mothers)
The truth is that ita��s the birth of the Christ. If we think about it historically though, it is not the exact date. We even celebrate it on two different dates. And, we know that neither is accurate. But when was it exactly that Christmas lost its spiritual sense? When was it exactly that the […]
The Case of Lesbians in Lebanon
It is with deep concern that I put on the table of discussion the case of lesbians in Lebanon. It has come to my attention, during my last visit, that some places, bars, restaurants are implicitly linked to their presence. Although it is reassuring to know that there are some safe havens, it remains very […]
Religious Identity versus Feminist Identity?
Do religious identities and feminist identities automatically fall in a conflictual dynamic? A question I have been asking myself for a long time… And my answer: there are ‘spaces’ of clash, and ‘spaces’ of dialogue, even in the most chaotic geopolitical zones such as the Middle East (Western Asia) where the religious knowledge tends to […]