Jordan VIII

OK, I suppose I must mention that I did make it to Petra a week ago, and it was BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING and INCREDIBLE (which it was). It was also neat to clamber up and down the rocks and do the "alternate route" all the way over to the ancient city, while checking out the Bedouin caves (where many still live, including a New Zealand-born nurse who married a Bedouin from here thirty years ago, when she came here as a tourist!). I couldn't remember for the life of me the Indiana Jones movie where it plays a prominent role, but certainly, we were busy singing, "dunh-da-da-daaaaaah, dunh-da-daaaaah, dunh-da-da-Daaaaah, dunh-da-da-Da-DAH! etc etc etc" while climbing around...
I'm realizing there are many things that I want to share here, but I recognize a public blog is not the place - there are stories that I think are really only appropriate for face-to-face time...
That being said, however, there is one I can peripherally talk about: I had been giving a few seminars on various topics pertinent to women's health here. One of the ones that I was particularly interested in giving was on domestic violence, as it is pervasive here (as it is everywhere). I had spoken on what it was, how one can identify it, how sadly and incredibly common it is worldwide, and how the cycle of abuse by perpetrators occurs. What saddened me is how some women smirked when I identified various actions that constituted domestic violence, as if they were saying, "What? That is nothing compared to what I get at home."... The additional point that I did have to make was how God feels about the matter, emphasizing that He made both men and women of equal value, worth and dignity, that He despises violence and that He was always been on the side of the weak and the oppressed, and that He, in fact, loves both men and women equally. Boy! That opened up a whole theological debate for quite a while: several women applauded and said that this was a good teaching, and others were not so sure: their imams taught differently from this, and so this could not be true. It was quite a lively discussion, which I think benefitted all who were in attendance... I am hoping, quite badly, that this may help to open minds to consider where the truth really lies, and may begin to empower women in this country for the better...