said, to denigrate her freedom.
“She is not like a woman,” they said, to praise her intelligence.
But numerous professors, magistrates, philosophers, and politicians came from afar to the School of Alexandria to hear her words.
Hypatia studied the enigmas that defied Euclid and Archimedes, and she spoke out against blind faith unworthy of divine love or human love. She taught people to doubt and to question. And she counseled:
“Defend your right to think. Thinking wrongly is better than not thinking at all.”
What was that heretical woman doing giving classes in a city run by Christian men?
They called her a witch and a sorcerer. They threatened her with death.
And one March day in the year 415, a crowd set upon her at noon. And she was pulled from her carriage and stripped naked and dragged through the streets and beaten and stabbed. And in the public square a bonfire disposed of whatever was left of her.
“It will be investigated,” said the prefect of the city.
THEODORA
The city of Ravenna owed allegiance to Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, but the city’s sharp tongues delighted in digging up the empress’s murky past: dancing in the slums of Constantinople as the geese pecked grains of barley off her nude body, her moans of pleasure, the roars of the audience . . .
But the sins which puritan Ravenna could not forgive were others, the ones she committed after her coronation. Theodora was the reason why the Christian empire of Byzantium became the first place in the world where abortion was a right,
adultery was not punished by death,
women had the right to inherit,
widows and illegitimate children were protected,
a woman’s divorce was not an impossibility,
and the marriage of Christian nobles to women of lower class or different religion was no longer prohibited.
Fifteen hundred years later, the portrait of Theodora in the Church of Saint Vitale is the most famous mosaic in the world.
This masterpiece of stonework is also the symbol of the city that loathed her and now lives from her.
URRACA
She was the first queen of Spain.
Urraca ruled for seventeen years, though Church records say her reign lasted no more than four.
Fed up with insults and beatings, she divorced the husband of a forced marriage, booting him out of her bed and her palace, though Church records say he left her.
To show the Church who was in charge and teach it to respect the female throne, Queen Urraca locked up the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and seized his castles, something unheard of in such a Christian land, though Church records say that was but “an explosion of womanly spirit, easily unhinged, and of womanly mind, filled as it is with pestiferous poison.”
She had dalliances, affairs, lovers, and she flaunted them cheerfully, though Church records say they were “behaviors that would make one blush to speak of.”
AYESHA
Six centuries after the death of Jesus, Mohammed died.
The founder of Islam, who by Allah’s permission had twelve wives nearly all at the same time, left nine widows. By Allah’s prohibition, none of them remarried.
Ayesha, the youngest, had been the favorite.
Some time later, she led an armed uprising against the caliph, Imam Ali.
In our times, many mosques refuse entry to women, but back then mosques were where Ayesha’s fiery speeches roused people to anger. Mounted on her camel, she attacked the city of Basra. The lengthy battle caused fifteen thousand casualties.
That bloodletting launched the enmity between Sunnis and Shiites, which to this day takes lives. And certain theologians decreed it irrefutable proof that women make a mess of things when they escape the bedroom and the kitchen.
MOHAMMED
When Ayesha was defeated, someone suddenly recalled what Mohammed had suggested twenty-eight years earlier:
“Hang up your lash where your woman can see it.”
And other disciples of the Prophet, also given to timely recollections, remembered that he had said
“She is not like a woman,” they said, to praise her intelligence.
But numerous professors, magistrates, philosophers, and politicians came from afar to the School of Alexandria to hear her words.
Hypatia studied the enigmas that defied Euclid and Archimedes, and she spoke out against blind faith unworthy of divine love or human love. She taught people to doubt and to question. And she counseled:
“Defend your right to think. Thinking wrongly is better than not thinking at all.”
What was that heretical woman doing giving classes in a city run by Christian men?
They called her a witch and a sorcerer. They threatened her with death.
And one March day in the year 415, a crowd set upon her at noon. And she was pulled from her carriage and stripped naked and dragged through the streets and beaten and stabbed. And in the public square a bonfire disposed of whatever was left of her.
“It will be investigated,” said the prefect of the city.
THEODORA
The city of Ravenna owed allegiance to Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, but the city’s sharp tongues delighted in digging up the empress’s murky past: dancing in the slums of Constantinople as the geese pecked grains of barley off her nude body, her moans of pleasure, the roars of the audience . . .
But the sins which puritan Ravenna could not forgive were others, the ones she committed after her coronation. Theodora was the reason why the Christian empire of Byzantium became the first place in the world where abortion was a right,
adultery was not punished by death,
women had the right to inherit,
widows and illegitimate children were protected,
a woman’s divorce was not an impossibility,
and the marriage of Christian nobles to women of lower class or different religion was no longer prohibited.
Fifteen hundred years later, the portrait of Theodora in the Church of Saint Vitale is the most famous mosaic in the world.
This masterpiece of stonework is also the symbol of the city that loathed her and now lives from her.
URRACA
She was the first queen of Spain.
Urraca ruled for seventeen years, though Church records say her reign lasted no more than four.
Fed up with insults and beatings, she divorced the husband of a forced marriage, booting him out of her bed and her palace, though Church records say he left her.
To show the Church who was in charge and teach it to respect the female throne, Queen Urraca locked up the archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and seized his castles, something unheard of in such a Christian land, though Church records say that was but “an explosion of womanly spirit, easily unhinged, and of womanly mind, filled as it is with pestiferous poison.”
She had dalliances, affairs, lovers, and she flaunted them cheerfully, though Church records say they were “behaviors that would make one blush to speak of.”
AYESHA
Six centuries after the death of Jesus, Mohammed died.
The founder of Islam, who by Allah’s permission had twelve wives nearly all at the same time, left nine widows. By Allah’s prohibition, none of them remarried.
Ayesha, the youngest, had been the favorite.
Some time later, she led an armed uprising against the caliph, Imam Ali.
In our times, many mosques refuse entry to women, but back then mosques were where Ayesha’s fiery speeches roused people to anger. Mounted on her camel, she attacked the city of Basra. The lengthy battle caused fifteen thousand casualties.
That bloodletting launched the enmity between Sunnis and Shiites, which to this day takes lives. And certain theologians decreed it irrefutable proof that women make a mess of things when they escape the bedroom and the kitchen.
MOHAMMED
When Ayesha was defeated, someone suddenly recalled what Mohammed had suggested twenty-eight years earlier:
“Hang up your lash where your woman can see it.”
And other disciples of the Prophet, also given to timely recollections, remembered that he had said
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