We can still SAY it and WRITE it over and over again - but their actions need to stand alone - horrific and recognized for what they are.

And what's disheartening - is that the deaths of these women get squashed underneath the bigger issue of the middle east. They are getting lost.

Maybe just by putting this here one of them somewhere on the other side of this life knows someone cared.

Monstrous.

needs to read this.

Horrifying!

Its happened all over the world.

Many of those women burned at the stake - actually helped people. They had the knowledge and the know how.

Imagine if all of those women who could cultivate medicine from the earth had lived and handed down that knowledge?

ISIS knows precisely what they are doing - because it has been done to the wisest and most knowledgeable women before.

to its patriarchal authority, not to mention stealing whatever land and property those women had. (speaking of lost knowledge, let us not forget the great library at alexandria)

are you familiar with the book "witches, midwives and nurses: a history of women healers" by barbara ehrenreich and deirdre english? I had the privilege of meeting them shortly after its publication.

you can read it here:

http://drbeardmoose.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/witchesmidwivesandnurses.pdf

a brief review:

Format: Paperback
Originally published in 1973 and now in a second edition, "Witches Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers" is a paperback account of feminist healers' history in Western Civilisation from the Middle Ages through the early 70's. The first publication was written in "An angry blaze" of feminine outrage, but the original "pamphlet" became an underground best-seller in the 70's according to the "Village Voice." Re-issuing the book today invites some re-examination of the same feminist issues that prompted its original publication, and the authors conclude: "We have not been passive bystanders in the history of medicine...Our enemy is not just 'men' or their individual male chauvinism: it is the whole class system that enabled male, upper-class healers to win out and which forced us into subservience. Institutional sexism is sustained by a class system which supports male power: There is no historically consistent justification for the exclusion of women from healing roles...Men maintain their power in the health system through their monopoly of scientific knowledge...Professionalism in medicine is nothing more than the institutionalization of male upper-class monopoly...we must begin to break down the distinctions and barriers between women health workers and women consumers....Our oppression as women health workers today is inextricably linked to our oppression as women (pp. 99-102)." "Witches Midwives & Nurses" includes the original bibliography of the 1973 edition. Published literature in the area was scant at that time. Lest we become complacent, "Witches Midwives and Nurses" reminds us that though we may have come far in the progression of feminist ideas and enlightened health practices and education by and for women, there is yet quite some distance to go.
http://www.amazon.com/Witches-Midwives-Nurses-Contemporary-Classics/dp/1558616616

reissued around 2010. very glad to hear that.

It is very sad that her knowledge was lost. it is gratifying though, that so many people are taking a renewed interest in these things, and the information available is better every day.