Woman Between Islam and Western Society
1. A Survey
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universally accepted as the truth. We shall mention
here two such stories.
The first is an ancient Greek tale which later gained
currency in Europe. It concerns the very first woman,
who was created out of earth by Hephaestus at the
instance of Zeus, the king of the gods, and sent down
into the world with a box containing all kinds of
misery and evil. It was the intention of Zeus in so
doing to set at naught the blessing of fire which
Prometheus had bestowed upon mortals by stealing
it from heaven. The story goes that from the moment
the box was opened, the world has been plagued
with wickedness and sorrow. This woman was given
the name Pandora, a Greek word which originally
meant “all-giving,” but which came to be
synonymous with “giver of all evils.”
The second story has certain points of similarity. It
too concerns the first woman, Eve, and having
already become famous among Jews, was even
incorporated into the Bible, which meant, of course,
that it was later accepted by Christians too. The
Bible version as told in the second chapter of the
book of Genesis is as follows:
