Hear Women Roar
By: Dr. Denise Renye
As I look around me, I see more and more instances of the divine feminine uprising; most recently typified by what’s happening in Iran. If you’re unaware, on September 16, 22-year-old student Mahsa Amini was detained by morality police in Tehran for her supposedly “incorrect” hijab and died at the hands of police. Photos and witnesses indicate she was badly beaten and her death has sparked outrage.
In the following days, women have defiantly burned their hijabs or cut their hair in public. According to the Economist, “Crowds chant ‘death to the dictator’ and chase off policemen. Families weep over the coffins of relatives killed at protests—and then urge their fellow mourners to keep at it.”
I can’t speak to why fellow mourners are urging the protests to continue and I cannot begin to say what is actually happening for the people going through this, but from my perspective, this is the energy of the divine feminine. Why do I say that? Isn’t the feminine supposed to be nurturing, soft, gentle? It can be, but a Hindu goddess I respect, Kali, shows a different sort of feminine energy. Kali means “she who is death” and in numerous stories, she expresses anger and goes on a bloody killing rampage. She destroys her enemies in wrath and revenge but also as an act of protection for those she loves. Nurturing isn’t always caretaking. Nurturing can also be boundary setting, saying, “No,” and embracing sovereignty.
Lebanese-Canadian designer, writer, and activist Céline Semaan-Vernon speaks to this in her tweet about Iran when she writes, “It’s not about the right of not wearing a hijab; it’s about sovereignty. It’s about freedom of being + the right to choose over our own bodies. The fight in Iran is the same in India & in the USA. We are all fighting for sovereignty and the freedom of our own bodies.”
The divine feminine is not only about bodily sovereignty, it’s about sovereignty period. Did you know the practice of a woman taking her husband’s last name is a vestige of a law that dates back to the 11th century? Sometime after the Norman Conquest, the Normans introduced the idea of “coverture” to the English, which asserted that after she married, a woman’s identity was “covered” by her husband. From the moment of her marriage, a woman was known as a “feme covert” or covered woman. She became “one” with her husband. Her identity was erased and she could not own property or enter into contracts on their own. Husbands had complete control over their wives, legally and financially.
In fact, before the 1970s, women could not get passports, driver’s licenses, or register to vote unless they adopted their husbands’ last names! Yes, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920 but it wasn’t for another 50+ years that women could vote using their maiden name, courtesy of the Tennessee court case Dunn v. Palermo.
These days, according to Brides.com, about 30 percent of women opt to keep their last names while a puny 3 percent of men adopt their wife’s last name. Why? Because we still live in a patriarchal society that values men and those closer on that side of the gender continuum than women. That’s precisely why we need a divine feminine uprising, to create sovereignty for all.
Journal Prompts
· When in life have you felt sovereignty over your own body?
· What sensations within your body were you aware of during that time?
Recommended Reading
· Re-Membering with Goddess: Healing the Patriarchal Perpetuation of Trauma: A Girl God Anthology
· Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness by Marion Woodman
· “How Compulsive Eating is a Sign of the Patriarchy.”
· “Letting Go: The Power of Saying Things Out Loud.”
To set up an appointment with me (Marin County Sexologist), click here.
References
Brandwein, Sharon. “Why Do Women Typically Take Their Husband's Last Name?” Brides.com, November 21, 2021. https://www.brides.com/why-do-women-take-husband-last-name-5116974#:~:text=Believe%20it%20or%20not%2C%20the,long%2Dstanding%20tradition%20were%20planted.
Economist writers. “Iran’s rebellion spreads, despite lethal repression.” The Economist. September 26, 2022. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/09/26/irans-rebellion-spreads-despite-lethal-repression