Through the Eyes of a Woman

  I just watched a video in which a British woman called  Alena Kate Pettitt, explains why she has chosen to live as a “tradwife“ – a full-time traditional housewife. That would mean that she doesn’t work outside her home so that she can be there for her husband and children and look after their home and garden. That was what life was supposed to be like for a woman in the 1950s. She doesn’t stop there, however, because she is not only ironing her husband's shirts in the video, but she is also propagating this lifestyle on social media, telling people how happy she is to support her husband so that he can be the best he can be. She is standing behind her ironing board as she is being filmed, but passing the iron over the shirt doesn’t seem to have any effect on the shirt which is not getting any smoother. We have got used to all kinds of influencers on social media who have carved out a lifestyle of being paid for what they are posting, promoting various products. The movement

  When my phone pinged in the night with the news that the Taliban had taken over Kabul my heart went out to the women of Afghanistan as never before. All the progress made in the last 20 years is now lost. Women in the country are concerned about their future. Their freedoms will again be restricted. Women’s rights activists fear for their lives for going against Taliban "ideologies and thoughts." They fear that the Taliban will force women to go back to the same situation they were in when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. During that period. they imposed strict rules. Women were unable to work or be in contact with men other than blood relatives and had to wear a burqa while out in public. If women violated the rules, they could face severe punishments from the Taliban, such as imprisonment, torture, or even death. Women were often publicly flogged or executed during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan. Taliban 2.0 will be a repetition of Taliban 1.

  One of the worst places on earth to be a woman is Pakistan. Femicides are so “normal“ that they hardly hit the news. Women are not protected from domestic violence by legislation. According to a police report, Noor Mukadam, a 27-year-old woman, died on July 20, killed by an acquaintance. As this murder happened in affluent surroundings and the victim was the daughter of a distinguished Pakistani ambassador and the alleged perpetrator is the son of an influential family, the case has raised interest. There have been several vigils with people lighting candles for Noor Mukadam in Islamabad. According to her father, Noor Mukadam was an artistic, soft-hearted girl who "loved animals and making her family laugh." She was described by her sister Sarah as a "beautiful person" who wanted to change the world: "She was here to change the world, she always talked about it. Her being my younger sister, I would brush her off and say, 'What do you mean, you want t

Yesterday I cut back some of the growth on our fig tree and looked at the leaves. No wonder the Creator didn’t think they were sufficient clothing when Adam and Eve stitched them together to cover their more intimate body parts. Even though the fig leaves in Eden probably were larger than the ones in my garden, the material was not ideal for the purpose. Adam and Eve certainly had perfect muscles and figures and could have been proud to display their beautiful bodies, but they felt the need to cover up. Athletes have beautiful, toned bodies. They train and take care of their health to reach their highest level of performance. They concentrate on being their best at just the right time. They should be able to compete in whatever clothing fits best and they are comfortable in. For male athletes, this is no problem. They wear shorts and tops and nobody seems to bother about what they wear as long as they are not against the regulations – and their regulations seem quite decent. Women