The Way We Were 600 Years Ago: Separated!

Around 1440, San Bernardino preached to crowds in Siena, Italy, and a local painter recorded the event:



I apologize for the quality of the image, I took it on the go in the museum next to the cathedral. But I wanted to share it with you because it shows something amazing. Did you notice it? 

Yes, all the women are on the left separated from all the men on the right! There's a barrier built between them.

And note further: all the women are covered from head to toe, you can't see their faces. Yet you do see the faces of the men, the painter made an effort to show them!

That was (almost) 600 years ago - some 25 generations have gone by since. That's how long it has taken the West to achieve gender equality...

How long will it take the Muslim world? They started off well two years ago with the Arab Spring...alas, it seems to have turned into an Arab Winter.

Still, I have great hopes that the evolution will be faster, they have an advantage over the West: they know which way the road goes, at least some of them do, the young ones...
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Comments

Jack Durish said…
Spring is such a beautiful time of the year. (At least, that's the way I remember it growing up in Maryland. In Southern California, it looks like much of the rest of the year.) Yes, the plants were blooming and the birds were singing, but the paths were muddy and the weeds were racing the flowers for sunlight. Yes, hope springs eternal with evil keeping pace.
Jack, you're probably right, that scene in Sienna's beautiful Piazza del Campo, in front of the townhouse, looks like it took place in the springtime. But a spingtime in violent contrast to San Bernardino's message. He was a strong preacher, a Catholic integralist who hated the premissiveness of the Italian Rinascimento, Botticelli's naked Venus etc He wanted to see the Church go back to early days...