Good for Nathan Bloom; Bad for Nicholas Kristof

A letter-to-the-editor:

Nicholas D. Kristof’s column about how religions often perpetuate the oppression of women doesn’t mention one of the most egregious examples of this oppression: the practice of honor killing.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5,000 women are killed each year, many in horrific ways, for “dishonoring” their families.

While the link between honor killings and religious faith is not always clear, these crimes are overwhelmingly Muslim-on-Muslim ones.

In 2007, to take one example, Aqsa Parvez, 16, was murdered in Toronto by her father because she refused to wear a hijab.

Some religious leaders have stated explicitly that Islam condones the practice. The point here is not to attack any one religion per se, but to face hard truths about how religions can fall short of their own ethical standards. Mr. Kristof’s column leads the way in showing how this can be done with both sternness and sensitivity.

Nathan Bloom
New York

Kristof also drops this in passem:

An Orthodox Jewish prayer thanks God, “who hast not made me a woman.”

So, see this

and this

and this explanation:

MEN THANK "SHE-LO ASANI ISHA" ("WHO HAS NOT MADE ME A WOMAN"), WOMEN THANK "SHE-ASANI KI-RETZONO" ("WHO HAS MADE ME ACCORDING TO HIS WILL")

The benediction customarily recited by women is truly a "women's berakha." It is a women's berakha because it was instituted by women themselves (the Rishonim indicate that it was NOT formulated by a man on women's behalf), and it is a women's berakha because it gives expression to a way of looking at the world which is characteristic of women.

In contrast to women, men tend to view and define things in a more analytic, negative, numerical way. Their characteristic mode of SELF-definition follows from this perspective, and is expressed in the form and content of the men's benediction: it is analytic (separating humankind into its two distinct sexes), negative (who has NOT made me a woman), numerical (the order of blessings is based on a numerical ordering of who is obligated in the most commandments, namely, slaves more than Gentiles, women more than slaves).

Women, on the other hand, tend to a more inclusive, positive, and holistic point of view. The blessing which they adopted to thank God for their unique status reflects this: it is inclusive (since men are also created, in their own way, according to His will), positive (Who HAS MADE me, as opposed to the men's berakha "who has not made me") and holistic (a general statement that women are made according to His will, not a quantitative measure of this fact).