Yesterday was a Women’s March on Washington, literally hours after Donald Trump’s Inauguration.   Many carried a variety of signs, shouted obscenities, and hurled insults at men.  Yet it wasn’t clear to me what they were marching about. 

In the Land of the Free, American women can boldly express their thoughts. They embrace the power of our Constitutional Republic, casting their votes and guiding the destiny of our nation.   Women can put their hands on the wheel and steer in the direction that God leads them.

Women in the US have the freedom to learn, absorbing knowledge and crafting their own success stories.  Some can choose to flourish in the professional world, while others find fulfillment in the embrace of a nurturing children at home. 

Women in the Unites States have so much freedom, they have the power to shape their own destinies, leaving an indelible mark on history.  Women can walk their own paths because they have rights, choices, and freedom.   

Let’s contrast the freedoms women in the United States have with women in other countries:

• Women in Afghanistan are illiterate.  More than half of all brides are under 16.  One woman dies in childbirth every half hour.  Domestic violence is so common that 87 % of women admit to experiencing it.  Due to decades of war, 1,000,000 widows are on the streets often forced into prostitution.  
• Women in Iraq have the lowest literacy rate because they fear going to school and being raped and murdered.
• Women in Nepal are starving.  Early marriage and childbirth exhaust the country’s malnourished women, and one in 24 will die in pregnancy or childbirth. Daughters who aren’t married off may be sold to traffickers before they reach their teens. Widows face extreme abuse and discrimination if they’re labelled bokshi, meaning witches.
• Women in China are subject to forced abortions if their family is over two children (recently changed from one to two).
• In Saudi Arabia, women were granted the right to drive only in 2018, marking a significant step towards gender equality.  
• In some Middle Eastern countries, women still face legal restrictions that require them to obtain permission from a male guardian for decisions related to marriage, divorce, travel, and even certain medical procedures. 
• Women in many Muslim countries are under Sharia law and are forced to wear hijabs as well as the niqab which covers their entire head and face, even their babies do not know what the mother’s face looks like.  If they do not wear it, they will be stoned to death or disfigured with acid thrown on their face.  Under Sharia law, wives can be beaten, men can have sex with young girls, women must be subservient to their husbands, are deemed lacking in intelligence, and female captives can be raped. 
• Women in Sudan, face abduction, rape or forced displacement.
• Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are subjected to systematic rape and left to die.  The UN calling this unprecedented.   
• Women in Mali, where women cannot escape the torture of genital mutilation and marriage at a very young age where 1 in 10 dies in childbirth.
• Women in Pakistan are gang raped to pay for men’s crime. 
• Women in Guatemala face domestic violence, rape, and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa.  An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
• According to UNICEF, 98% of Somali women aged 15-49 have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
• Women and girls around the world are being abducted and sold into sex trafficking. 
• Violence against women remains a pressing issue globally. According to the World Health Organization, about 1 in 3 women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence, the majority of which is perpetrated by an intimate partner.

These are real injustices and ongoing tragedies. 

In comparison, as I watched many women at the march, I wondered how they enjoyed waking up to a warm home, had nice clothes to wear, ate a good breakfast, who drove a nice car to get to the march only to shout hateful noise.  Many came for politics and to protest Trump’s inauguration.  Many carried disgusting and vulgar signs and blatantly wore pink vagina costumes.  They stopped their clamor occasionally but only to tune into speeches from celebrities who make millions of dollars like Madonna, an ungodly woman, spewing hate, who for decades has flaunted her body to sell her songs, no role model for anyone.

“The godless in heart cherish anger.”  Job 36:13

The women and speakers at the March do not speak for me – they will never speak for me.

We can’t reach through the TV and change these godless women, only the Holy Spirit can.  You can pray that their eyes will be opened, and they will see the truth.   Pray for the women around the world who are suffering and have little freedoms.