‘‘Hagar gave this name (El Roi) to the Lord who spoke to her. ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’”

Genesis 16:13

I had a fascinating conversation with a (male) friend today, about the history of walking.

Go back about 100 years, and women couldn’t walk out in city streets by themselves. Especially after dark. At least, not without risking arrest, and a forced examination for venereal disease. We began to reflect on how we both experienced walking today. The Everyday Sexism project has created an impressive/depressive catalogue of the spectrum of abuse and intrusion women experience every day, often simply walking down the street. Cat-calls, ‘fun’ comments, downright abusive rants. In this, it seems – men and women’s experience is generally not equal.

Then I think about women for whom walking is an unequivocally dangerous activity. Women walking miles for water every day, vulnerable to attack. Women trudging mile after mile with children or possessions on their back, fleeing war and conflict in which they are specifically and horrifically at risk.

Which brings me to this story of Hagar – told in Genesis 16 and 21. Twice she walks into the desert, fleeing oppression. She is unequal, not just to Abram but to Sarai. These two women remind us of the diversity in women’s experience and power that continues today. And as I read the story, I wonder what good news there is here. Even God colludes with Hagar’s suffering, sending her back to Abram and Sarai. The focus of the Hebrew narrative is on Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac – Hagar and Ishmael are bit players in the drama.

Yet, read another way – Hagar and her son are included in the promise that Abram will be the father of many nations. She fights and despairs, but she survives – without and despite Abram and Sarai. And she is the first person in the Bible to name God. In the middle of it all, she has this experience of being known and seen by God. She is ‘my slave’ to Sarai, but she is SEEN by God.

That’s where equality begins. From the beginning of the Bible, we are reminded that God sees us all. We deny that image in all kinds of ways, seeing others as less than us. But repeatedly the biblical narrative deals us these subversive moments, challenging us about how we divide the world and how we treat one another. So today as I walk through my day, I’m challenged to notice how I see others, and to imagine how God sees them. And I’m inspired to keep engaging with inequality – to work for a day when nothing will divide us, and the image of God will be seen perfectly in us all.

Danielle Welch

Written for Women’s Equality Day – commemorating female suffrage in the USA, enshrined in the 19^th amendment in 1920.