Ode to Vashti: Here’s To Rebellious Women

I was raised Christian and grew up attending summer Christian youth camps and night vigils. Some of my earliest memories involve reciting Bible verses on Children’s Day and entertaining adults in the church with dances done to “hip” gospel artists.

It was not only in my family church that I encountered teachings about Christianity. My first secondary school was actually a Christian school and it has taken me conscious unlearning to overcome some of the negative ideas around sexual purity that I was taught there.

Sexual purity and redundant beliefs about women’s modesty were not the only things I learned whilst in that school. 

Asides being taught that women and invariably women’s clothing were to blame for a man harassing them and being tempted, one memory that stands out is a church drama that I was a part of. In it, we acted the Biblical story of Esther and Vashti and concluded that Vashti was not deemed Queen because she did not respect her husband.

We did this without thinking deeply as to what was so wrong in a woman refusing to be ogled by drunk men like she was a piece of meat.

Full disclaimer: I am no longer Christian and have since come to celebrate Vashti as a symbol of female defiance. Especially as a symbol of female defiance in a Bible that is so often filled with nameless and faceless women bending and contorting themselves to appeal to the needs of the men in their lives.

Now, though I am no longer Christian, I still tend to ironically draw inspiration from the women in the Bible who for a lack of a better term can be described as the “bad girls of the Bible”. The women like Jael, Vashti, Orpah, and even women who get shamed in sermons like Delilah, Jezebel and Eve. These women represent what I believe are some qualities young women should be encouraged to have. Eve for one was inquisitive and went in search of knowledge regardless of the consequences. I think in a world that tries to silence the voices and minds of women and girls, following the steps of Eve can be a good way to obtain much needed life saving information.

But back to Vashti and the way she is unnecessarily shamed. Why is Vashti shamed for standing up for herself? Is it because her actions represent the very scary reality that is women shouting back at sexism and reaffirming our rights to bodily autonomy? Is it because the men who shame her want women and girls watching to be afraid of boldly defining the who, what and how of our personal space and inner lives? 

What if the men who shame Vashti are one of those men who catcall women, shame women for having abortions and secretly or overtly are worried that should women gain the ability to access birth control shame free, then their illusions about having a submissive wife (read: servant) will be squashed?

I however choose to celebrate Vashti. I celebrate her for being a reminder to stand up for myself even if my voice shakes. I celebrate her for letting me know that especially when my heart beats in fear, then I must remind myself and my body that it is not a resting place for the worries and insecurities of broken men. I celebrate Vashti for encouraging me to understand that even if I may not agree with a woman’s style of defying sexism, I must lend her a hand in solidarity because I can and will benefit from the freedom obtained by that style of pushing for justice.

Speaking with Wunmi, a member of The Emecheta Collective which is a safe space group of women creatives founded by me, she says that Vashti is shamed because she was assertive, a trait that is not liked in women.

To quote her: “I feel that she wasn’t the conventional “woman”. She was assertive and refused to be used or seen as an object to be gazed upon and for which a man should be praised for.

I remember I had a conversation about it with someone older and they said that she was rude and didn’t respect her husband, the king yada yada.”

I agree with Wunmi that Vashti is shamed for being assertive but that should not be so.

Women like Vashti should serve as a reminder to young girls to stand up for themselves and not accept catcalling as a “compliment”. Women like Vashti should also serve as a reminder that it is okay to start over and leave or be made to leave a marriage or relationship.

It is of utmost importance that women like her are celebrated and given their due praise for not bowing to the role of victimhood even in the face of immense shaming.