‘A woman should learn in quietness and full submission’ (1 Timothy 2: 11): Empowering Women in the Fight against Masculine Readings of Biblical Texts and a Chauvinistic African Culture in the Face of HIV and AIDS

Abstract

The status of women has generally become a human rights issue the world over, and Zimbabwe has not been left behind in that debate. Unfortunately, some men and women still believe that for women to occupy influential positions in society is testimony to the coming of the end of the world. As a way of buttressing men's patriarchal or chauvinistic views, the bible is invoked to remind women about their place and role in society. Using a random sampling method, interviews were conducted with twenty-five men and twenty-five women in Harare, Zimbabwe, on their perspective on 1 Timothy 2: 11 in the light of the empowerment of women in Zimbabwean society. This paper seeks to prove that negative perceptions against women are unhelpful and retrogressive and go against millennium development goals, particularly when biblical texts like 1 Timothy 2: 11–12, Ephesians 5: 25, 1 Peter 3: 1–2, 1 Corinthians 7: 4–5 and 1 Corinthians 14: 33b–35 are invoked to fight against the empowerment of women in the face of HIV and AIDS. Biblical texts like 1 Timothy 2: 11–12 can be applied out of context and erroneously used to serve or support patriarchal agendas – a position that this paper dismisses as morally untenable and disadvantageous to the rights of contemporary women. Yet the majority of women, as in the case of Zimbabwe, bear the effects of HIV and AIDS, poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.