A CALL TO ACTION - Women, Religion, Violence and Power

That this book was written by a devout Christian,White American Man is remarkable. The title absolutely justifies the content. It is a call to action. This book is capable of riling up emotions. It is a 200 page book with detailed and vivid description of the violence and abuse experienced by women all over the world.
Instead of retiring to a country home after the end of his political career, Jimmy carter set up the Carter Foundation and travelled all around the world advocating for human rights, campaigns to put an end to Diseases In African countries and monitoring elections. His peaceful works was recognised and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002

Jimmy Carter seemed like a man with a goal to give an unbiased report on violence against women caused mostly by Religion, Race and Power. This report consist of over 30 years worth of experience he gathered while traveling all over the world with his wife - Rosalyn, the works done by the Carter foundation and his time as the governor of Georgia and president of the United States of America. A lot of research went into writing this book with statistics to back it up to prove that we indeed live in a patriarchal society. Anyone who cares deeply about religion will find it disturbing and sad that religion is used repeatedly to cause physical and mental abuse to women.


He started off the book by describing his childhood years, he grew up in a predominantly African American rural community. He was taught to respect women irrespective of their race. Due to his interaction with his friends in the community most of whom were black, He was immersed into the African American culture. He often went to a nearby town to sell peanuts and would occasionally listen to men talk about their sexual exploits with other men's wives shamelessly and about how much a whore cost. It was a shock to him because of his upbringing to respect women. Most of these men were white and they preferred black women and during this time, interracial contact was a taboo.

This was of course mind boggling to a young Jimmy at that time and upon reflection he often wondered why these white men felt comfortable having sex with black women but failed to interact with them in public on the premise that black people were inferior to white people. This statement probably explains why.

Even those in the dominant class who disagreed with these presumption remained relatively quiet and enjoyed the benefits of the prevailing system.

Religious leaders back then preached about how it was God's will for white people to be superior to black people and they had religious scriptures to back it up. Of course that was a huge misinterpretation of the scripture.

He explained that racism in present times is not as high as it used to be but it is replaced by what is now a global problem -Violence against women. This stemmed from the presumption that women are not equal to men and how religious leaders use selected verses to justify that premise.

There has long been a distinction in societal attitudes towards men and women who engage in extra or pre marital sex

The writer lend credence to the above statement by sharing the story of a lady culled from Christian Ethics today about a young Canadian lady who at nineteen was a devout and unmarried Christian lady and was publicly humiliated by her pastor when he learnt she had pre marital sex. In the presence of young people, the pastor wanted to teach her a lesson and made this analogy; he passed round a glass of water and had each person in the gathering to spit into the water, and then asked 'Who wants to drink this?'
This part I have to say, infuriated me, because the message the pastor was trying to pass to her was that she was worthless on the basis of this act, nothing was done to the man who she had sex with of course. I was happy to read in the book that she is happily married with children and shares this story to young women to encourage them that they are not damaged or unworthy of love from a decent man in spite of their past.
The writer described that when he was a teenager, it was ok for boys to be engaged in premarital sex and the girls were not. Very few girls did not conform. The norm was for girls to wait till their wedding night before having sex and this he observed with his wife Rosalyn.

It would have been completely out of character for her to do otherwise, but I was reluctant to let other men know that I was a virgin, feeling that it was somehow a reflection on my manhood

Different societal standards and expectations  still exist for boys and girls. He ended this chapter with this

I still believe that abstinence is the best choice for both, but condemnation and disgrace are not appropriate, and there should not be any distinctions in rules of behaviour for males and females

Mr Carter also talked about why he was committed to making peace through dialogue instead of going to war during his time as the president. He wrote with pride about how no gun shots were fired, bombs dropped during his tenure as president and he chose peaceful resolution instead of going to war. His reason for this was because women and children were always the worst casualties in war times. They were always sexually and physically abused or killed.

After his time as president, America has gone to war countless times without considering other peaceful options. He added that American Christians justified this act of always going to war with a verse in the scripture 'An eye for an eye' which he says has become more important than the teachings of Jesus as the prince of peace.
This incessant war by America has somehow triggered the advent of  religious extremist from some parts of the world.

The writer also wrote about his church the Southern Baptist Church of which he had been a member since he was a boy. He was a bible study teacher, deacon and was fully involved in the church's activities. The debate of 'If men and women are equal in the sight of God' has always being a topic for debate in his church and during a convention held in the year 2000, the delegates voted that women should not be allowed to be Bible school teachers, pastors and deacons. Any Bible class for children that had even one boy was not to be taught by a woman. He said, himself and his wife had to come to the conclusion that these new laws set by the church does not suit them and that was how the relationship with his church ended.
Some Bible verses were used to justify their action especially books written by St Paul. Mr Carter however made a compelling case against the premise that men and women are not equal. He gave examples of how Jesus prevented a woman who was accused of committing adultery from mob attack and how he freely interacted with women and treated them same way he treated men. He quoted Galatians 3 vs 26-28

 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus

I honestly do not get why people prefer to live by the old testament. Jesus died on the cross so we can be free, liberated and not subjected to condemnation. As Christians we are encouraged to live a Christ like life and be guided by the principle of

'Do unto others as you will like others to do to you'.
It was interesting to know that this principle is a guiding principle for almost all religions of the world

He also wrote about Discrimination against poor women, black women and the disabled. These group of people were sentenced to prison so easily while white men enjoyed the privilege of being white by getting off the hook with help of well experienced lawyers who got them off or a jail term that can only be described as a slap on the wrist.

Sexual assault and rape is prevalent in respected institutions like the army and universities. Girls who were often raped, never report it for fear of stigmatisation and also because the abusers were never convicted. Statistics of rapes that go unreported in this institution was staggering .

In this book, I got a glimpse of how highly placed people in the society can use their influence for good. Mr Carter had to personally get involved in several cases of violence and sexual abuse against women when he was in power and afterwards.

Some abuses against women that I was completely oblivious of their existence were, The genocide of girls, - Yeah, you read that right!! 'Honor' Killings, Child marriage and dowry deaths. Genocide of girls is prevalent in countries like India and China. Girls were strangled to death by their mothers in most cases, because It was considered useless to have a girl. They believed that it was useless taking care of the girl child. In recent times, with the help of technology the girl child is usually aborted at foetal stage.
'Honor' Killings was actually a shock to me because I thought this was a practice that took place thousands of years ago due to ignorance but No it is still happening in some Asian countries. When a girl is raped, she is said to have brought shame to her family so she is  killed by members of her family. This of course was justified with religious scripture.

Since girls are considered to be a burden on the family and unmarried ones an embarrassment, many families are willing to go bankrupt to get them married. As a result, thousands of these women suffer

Poor families who find it hard to feed their children, go through all sorts to get their children married off. In India, the bride's family is expected to pay dowry, when these parents are unable to pay the money they promised the groom or give the gifts they promise, the groom kills the bride out of anger and they are rarely convicted. Most times the brides are killed because they are not virgins.
Girls who are less than 15 years of age are more likely to die while giving birth or lose the child. This is the sad reality in countries like this.

He wrote about Politics, Pay and Maternal Health. Women are still denied equal participation in politics. Although the numbers have increased over the years. Surprisingly, countries like India, Liberia, Philippines, Britain and Nicargua have had women served as presidents and prime ministers, the United States is said to be behind as very few women get elected to public offices or are offered the opportunity to serve the country.

A particular chapter I found very interesting - not in a good way was chapter 12. Thabo Mbeki the former President of South Africa outrightly rejected the use of antiretroviral treatments for pregnant women who were HIV positive. This treatment was to prevent the unborn child from being infected. Mr Mbeki rejected this treatment for his people on the grounds that

'They were likely to be toxic and were being foisted on innocent black people by white leaders from western nations'

I mean imagine, putting lives of citizens who he swore to protect at risk because of an excuse like that. If it was a close family member that was infected, will he take that stance?
The amount of work, Mr Carter and his foundation has done especially in African countries makes me wonder what exactly African Leaders do with all the money derived from the continent. He is sometimes faced with resistance from these leaders. He wrote about how he and Thabo Mbeki almost came close to blows because of their separate stance on the antiretroviral treatment. Well the treatment was finally given to these women with the help of Nelson Mandela.
It is not all gloom in the book, a part that made me smile I must say is when he described how he helped tackle the blinding trachoma spread in Ethiopia caused by flies and affected millions of people, the carter centre built latrines for the communities and by the end of 2012, they had built  2.9 million latrines in Ethiopia.

I am proud of my growing reputation as the world's most preeminent sponsor of latrines

I am sure he had a smile on his face as he penned that down.

Mr Carter outlined 23 action plan at the last chapter to stop Gender and Race discrimination, I watched an interview he granted after the launch of his book and he said he sent copies of this book to various world and religious leaders and some of them sent replies and promised to do something about this global problem - Violence against women.

I am however surprised that there was no mention of gun control in this book.
It is amazing that through all of this, his faith in God is still unwavering.

Overall, It is recommended for every one who is passionate about gender equality, fairness, world peace and justice.