Mrs. Moses Smith

“ The customs and principles of marriage among any people are the exponents of woman’s place in the social scale. Chinese women are bought and sold in marriage. The wife is forever subject to her husband and his parents; only when she becomes the mother of sons does she receive the respect of the family. Divorce is practically at the pleasure of the husband, or he may sell her to another man. Undesired at birth, liable to be sold while a child for prostitution, never educated, her low estate naturally leads to the crime of infanticide. ”

“ The boy is father of the man, but the woman is mother of the boy, hence the study of the teaching of any religion concerning woman, and of her character and place in society as the result of that religion, is vital both to the correct understanding of the system and of what it has wrought for the world.
The most venerable and possibly the most powerful Ethnic religion is Brahmanism. Rising in India when that was the land of literature and art, the home of the cultured Aryans, for fifteen centuries this religion wrought unhindered on the people. ”

“ Through its doctrine of transmigration of souls, it is possible that through obedience to her husband and his relatives, and the birth of a son, she may in some future aeon have the happiness of being returned to this world a man. If a man commits a crime he may be returned to earth a woman. The one fervent prayer of the women as they crowd the Buddhist temple is, that they may be returned to earth as men. ”

“ The world has known many religions, some of them eminent for the tremendous power with which they have held millions in their sway over centuries of time; eminent also for profound philosophy, lofty ideals, and sometimes a high morality. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the test for Himself and His teaching: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The conditions of society, temporal and spiritual, are the fruits by which any religious system may be known.
In the nature of things the factor that most universally moulds society is woman. ”

“ He very readily said, ‘That woman is a wicked animal. That the cow is a holy animal.’” No brilliant presentation of Vedic learning, no poetic picture of Brahman or Buddhist philosophy so recently heard in the Parliament of Religions, will prevent the world from arraigning Hinduism for cherishing, in the sacred name of religion, the grossest vices, and basely degrading woman and all society. ”

“ We turn the pages of the Koran with eager hope that we may find in the writings of this man some teaching that shall lead to the uplifting of woman. The most hopeful word the Koran has for woman is in the second chapter: “Whoso doeth good works and is a believer, whether male or female, shall be admitted to Paradise.” The practical exegesis of a woman’s “good works” is, obedience to the husband. Without that good work she can not enter Paradise. ”

“ For long centuries widows have been a literal burnt offering for the redemption of husbands. The English Government has prohibited the suttee, but being considered by the family as one rejected of the gods, the widow’s life is such a degradation, such a sorrow, it would seem merciful to let her die. Manu wrote, “Let not a widow [10] ever pronounce the name of another man, for by remarriage she brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her Lord.” To-day in India under the Hindu religion the widow may not take food more than once in the day. ”

“ And they dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of the Egyptians.
The years go by and centuries are numbered. We find the fulfilled promise of a “great nation” in a people in whose veins on the one side is filtering the blood of the great Abraham, mingling with the larger proportion of the idolatrous Egyptian, nomadic in habit, with a genius for conquest, with a language distinguished for softness and copiousness, with a literature of great antiquity and high poetical merit, dwelling in the Peninsula of Arabia. ”

“ The spider’s web which once saved the life of Mohammed has, as by the hand of a Vulcan, been forged into a chain which in this nineteenth century in the name of religion dares hold woman, and through her, 200,000,000 of mankind in a singularly hopeless degradation.
Persia.
The sacred books of Zoroaster give women a higher place than any other Ethnic religion. Women are given the same religious rites as men, yet even here “woman’s first duty is obedience to her husband, and disobedience is a crime so heinous as to receive punishment after death.” ”

“ While Japanese women are not so pitiably degraded as in India or China, we read in their book of “Instruction for Woman,” “Woman is the creature of man.” “A woman’s husband is her God.” Concubinage, “divorce if the wife is not obedient to her husband’s parents” or is unkind to a concubine, and the selling of young daughters for prostitution, tell the story. ”

“ Each of these systems evinces profound thought and lofty ideals, Buddhism a high morality. Each contains elements of truth, and each has been a tremendous power in the history of the race. Striving for supremacy on the same field, the result was a coalition. Together they enter the stream of history under the name of Hinduism. The time has been long enough, the field favorable and broad enough for the completest results, and the present condition of society in India affords an opportunity to see the results. ”

“ Although it is certain she will soon be a widow, even that is preferable to allowing her to remain unmarried.
Infanticide.
“The code of Manu forbids a woman to read the scripture or offer prayer by herself. She is to have no individuality. She exists only in her father or her husband; without a husband she is soulless.” This doctrine bears its legitimate fruit in the custom of murdering infant girls. It is easy reasoning, that it is better to murder a soulless child than not to be able to betroth her and so bring disgrace on the whole family. ”

“ They being married to a god can never be widowed and their touch is lucky. In elegant attire with costly jewels and perfumes, charmingly graceful, they lead their wretched lives, bring great sums into the treasury of the [12] temple, and, as they are religiously taught, accumulate a store of blessing for themselves in a future state. John Short, M. D., Surgeon General of India, Member of Anthropological Society, London, says: “The Nautch girl is recognized and patronized by the Hindu religion.” ”

“ To the impulse he gave, numberless dynasties owe their existence. Fair cities, stately palaces and temples have arisen. At a thousand shrines the voice of the faithful invokes blessings on him.” [12] “He saw with a correct spiritual vision the elemental truth of all religion. There is only one God.” [13] For twelve centuries the teachings of Mohammed have borne fruit in human lives. ”

“ According to the Koran, the husband may divorce a wife without warning or assigning a reason. The husband has only to say, “Thou art divorced.” Even life may be taken at the will of the husband. Woman is practically a chattel. ”

“ A youth of great sincerity and purity, his domestic life with his wife, Khadija, is as beautiful as could be found among a non-Christian people. But when at the age of fifty-two he sets himself up as a prophet, and becomes the husband of eleven wives, we find him guilty of the grossest crimes, robbery, murder, and butchery which rival the Emperor Nero. ”

“ In the Empire of China, under a government distinguished for its stability and justness, among a people spoken of before Christ as “Those who dwell apart,” and known from the time of Ptolemy as just, mild, frugal and industrious, comprising one-fourth the human race; three religions of confessed power, not as rivals, but as co-ordinate and supplemental, have for many centuries sought to solve the problem of life, death and immortality. ”

“ When the women apply to the priests for instruction they are told “When you die your soul will pass into the land of spirits where it may remain ages before it is allowed to return to earth and inhabit the body of a man. ”

“ Men shall have pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein God hath caused the one to excel the other, and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining [21] their wives. ”

“ If a daughter is not married until the age of ten, the father can only attain the lowest place assigned the blest. If a girl is not married until she is eleven years of age, all her progenitors for six generations will suffer pain and penalties.” [5] When recently an effort was made to induce the Government to raise the legal age of marriage to twelve years, great excitement prevailed. The Brahmans set apart days of fasting and prayer. Multitudes came in processions to the temples, in some cases beating their breasts and calling aloud to the gods to spare them from such calamity. ”

“ Parents who have a son very ill will vow to some [11] god that if the son’s life is spared they will consecrate a little girl to the temple; or the parents believing that honor or wealth will be the result, consecrate a girl to the god ”

“ Around the head is tied a yard long linen or cotton veil in which before the eyes is a piece of open work about the size of a finger which is the only look out and ventilator. No part, not even a hand or an eye, can be seen. ”

“ From the hour of consecration the little thing is treated with peculiar respect. She alone of the girls of the family is taught to read. When she becomes ten or twelve years old, her father, mother and nearest relatives take her to the great temple. ”

“ She must go without food and water for forty-eight hours twice in the month. At a meeting of the highest religious court a few years ago it was gravely decreed that, if acting on medical advice, a widow did sometimes take a little water on fast day, the offense might be condoned. ”

“ In one part of the temple these drafts are sold, the priests placing the seal of the Temple on them. Of the $400,000,000 annually given for idol worship in China, at least seven-eighths is given by women and three-fourths of that by women too poor to obtain enough of even the coarsest food. ”