I hope that women would understand that church’s insistence on modesty is not a tyrannical attitude. It is just an expression of the fact that the woman is not alone in the church and that man shares her chastity. Paul says that she sanctifies him because of what she has from loyalty and dedication. I hope that she understands that she is harming his chastity if she uncovers seductive parts of her body as she also harms her own chastity. The body for us is not an exhibited thing for greedy eyes. The body is a place for a love encounter with the partner of a deep sentimental relationship where sexual relation is one way of expression. Outside this relationship, the body must be covered.
The woman knows in her feeling and experience that any exposure is seductive. She knows the limits and doesn’t need to be taught. We do not have any legitimate judgments that classify details; morals are enough to know what should be covered and what is acceptable to uncover without any lying and hiding behind the excuse of fashion. The woman is neither the prisoner of fashion nor a fashion model. It is not enough to say that I like this thing; there are a lot of things in life that we like but are harmful for us and others. It is shameful to lie and claim that the weather is hot. Men also feel the temperature but still they cover themselves. And if we want to take into account modesty in general, we have first to do that in church as the faithful go there in order to pray, and not to see a fashion show. What everyone complains about, men and women, is the scene in weddings where chastity is insulted in a severe way. Maybe the excuse is that after the wedding there is a welcome party; but again why not have this party in modesty?
The main harm in all of this is that men get distracted from praying, so they don’t hear any word of prayer because their eyes are busy with the seduction. The deeper thing is that the woman, who’s insulting her clothes, forgot that her body is the place of encounter with her husband; so if she has the right to be beautiful for her husband, does she have the right to do that for all people and hurt their purity? Isn’t this harmful for them and her?
Isn’t this the pride of beauty? And if it was wrong for anyone to be proud of his intelligence and status, is it right for the woman to be proud of her beauty? Isn’t it pride to expose the body in such a cheap way?
It is known for analyzers that sexual seduction carry a lot of the love of authority. As revenge to this authority of women, man tries to take control over through seducing her with money. This way the love relationship between them becomes a relation of a master and a slave, where mastery goes from him to her through money and from her to him through seduction.
There are things that became familiar in general, and there are other things that will never become familiar even after a thousand years if we still have faith in chastity. What is important here is to have honesty and some courage so that the woman won’t have to imitate others in a blind way or become the prisoner of fashion shops.
You (woman) are responsible for your brother the man, in public places, the office or in church. Your body is not an object; it became sacred after it was anointed with Myron. I can not see a way for it to become sacred if you were, with your own will, a fashion model.
This does not require a great effort from you; modesty isn’t something heroic. It is enough to decide to be modest as a loyalty towards Christ and as a support to the chastity of the man, your brother.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “الحشمة” – 8.8.2004
