A Crooked Rib

Salams,
Hadith #1:
Abu Huraira (Allaah be pleased with him) reported: Woman has been created from a rib and will in no way be straightened for you; so if you wish to benefit by her, benefit by her while crookedness remains in her. And if you attempt to straighten her, you will break her, and breaking her is divorcing her.
Hadith #2:
Abu Huraira (Allaah be pleased with him) reported Allaah's Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) as saying: He who believes in Allaah and the Hereafter, if he witnesses any matter he should talk in good terms about it or keep quiet. Act kindly towards woman, for woman is created from a rib, and the most crooked part of the rib is its top. If you attempt to straighten it, you will break it, and if you leave it, its crookedness will remain there. So act kindly towards women.

Ya so I think many women are offended by these ahadith regarding their comparison with a crooked rib...really subhanAllah? I think it really helps me to understand myself and other women. Why is there such an emphasis in society about men controlling women and having them do things against their will, it generally is not emphasized the other way around...this is due in large part to the control that men naturally have over women, but the unnatural control that some men have over women is what I think this hadith is referring to. The Prophet (saw) is urging men to be kind to women and really leaving them be, because I think men have an innate ability to want to straighten something to their liking, and the Prophet (saw) is urging them not to do this because this will only break the woman.

This reminds me of a scene from the movie Pinjar. (pinjar=cage). So this man kidnaps a girl and marries her against her will. At the end of the movie she has the opportunity to go back with her family and marry the person she was supposed to marry to begin with, her response: she cries and runs back to the man who has kidnapped her. So she doesnt want to leave the man who was so cruel to her (but now she loves him), b/c she is married to him, wow how powerful. And her ex-fiancee tells her brother to leave her with the man b/c if she is uprooted again she will be broken as a person.

so lesson: don't break a woman, it will break society. (lol I skipped ahead there, left some thoughts out, just wanted to get to the lesson)

Rabea