Your body is the temple of God
Engaging on body politics with young women during a session at SAYWF raised an interesting issue around the body. Whilst women spoke of how political the way their hair is, how their dress is controlled and restricted by police and society in their different contexts the issue of religion surfaced.
"You can say all you want to say about these bodies but the first thing I was told as a young girl was that my body is the temple of God. That statement has followed me through my entire life." A discussion followed on this issue as young women traced the impact of this message on their lives. Part of guarding the temple has been to stay chaste, to dress conservatively and be pure in various ways as determined by family and the church. Religion is a part of many young women's lives but there is no disputing the complexities related to it and the kind of contradictions it generates in young women's lives and that it is difficult to find space to engage with the contradictions.
A young woman speaking about her experience of rape reinforced the trauma of being in a space where she had been told that her entire worth was on her body, its purity and chastity and how all of a sudden she felt worthless because some bastard had violated her.
Rudo Chigudu
thank you for this post. i too, was once told that my body is the temple of God but it seems whilst growing up i had forgotton about that. the images i see of what is being done to women's bodies and men screaming and making comments about my body has made me hate this body.
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