The Life and Works of Rizal proudly presents this abridged version of To The Young Women of Malolos by Dr. Jose Rizal. While it is always better to read the piece in its entirety, here is an abridgment that covers all the important points covered in the letter.
No paraphrase or summarization has been done. All text is taken from the original English translation, occasionally condensed and truncated for clarity.
Related pages:
To the Young Women of Malolos Full Text
To the Young Women of Malolos Summary and Analysis
When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself the question whether bravery was a common thing in the girls of our people. I brought back to my recollection those I had known since my infancy, but there were only few who seemed to come up to my ideal.
There was, it is true, an abundance of girls with agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor, but there was in all an admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-called "spiritual fathers", due to excessive kindness, modesty, or, perhaps, ignorance.
However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error, and great was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I did not know Malolos nor its girls, except one called Emilia, and her I knew by name only.
Now that you have set an example to those who long to be delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened in us because we have you for our allies. No longer does the Filipino stand with her head bowed because now she is quickened by hope in the future; and no longer will the science of all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, nor will a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable panacea for all tribulations.
You know that the will of God is different from that of the priest; that religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big rosaries, and grimy scapularies, but in a spotless conduct, firm intention and upright judgment. The official or the friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for their unjust orders, because God gave each of you reason and a will of your own to distinguish the just from the unjust; you were all born without shackles and free, and nobody has a right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another.
God does not demand that man allow himself to be deceived and hoodwinked, but wants us to use the light of reason with which he has so mercifully endowed us.
The deceiver is fond of using the saying that "it is presumptuous to rely on one's own judgment", but, in my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to put his judgment above that of others and try to make it prevail over theirs.
It is more presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his lips to God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his own enemy as an enemy of God. The cassock or the cowl does not give wisdom: the wild man from the hills, if clad in a priest's robes, remains a hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant.
But I will leave this subject to speak of something else.
Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. It is the mothers who are responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the trustfulness of their hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their sons.
The mother who can only teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with blood other than that of vile slaves. As to the mites and gifts to God, is there anything in the world that does not belong to God? What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a cloth borrowed from that very master?
Blessed be they aid the poor and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who who turn a deaf ear to the poor, and spend their money lavishly on silver altar hangings for the church, or give it to the friar, who lives in abundance, in the shape of fees for masses of thanksgiving, or in serenades and fireworks.
Saintliness consists in obeying the dictates of reason, happen what may. "It is acts and not words that I want of you", said Christ. Christ did not mention scapularies, nor did he make rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the mass or exact payment for his prayers. Saint John did not demand a fee on the River Jordan, nor did Christ teach for gain.
Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell scapularies, rosaries, belts, and other things which are nothing but schemes for making money and a detriment to the soul; because even if all the rags on earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forests into rosaries, and if all the priests of the earth mumbled prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue or condone sin where there is no repentance.
Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money, nothing more nor less than a friar? If that is the God whom the friar adores, then I turn my back upon that God.
Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to influence the consciousness of man. Remember that a good mother must bring up her child to be the image of the true God, not of a blackmailing, a grasping God.
Awaken and prepare the will of your children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clean procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must teach your children.
And, seeing that life is full of thorns and thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and accustom them to danger. So long as they can keep the Filipina mother a slave, so long will they be able to make slaves of her children.
This is our dream: to restore the honor of woman. If she is a maiden, the young man should love her not only because of her beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind and loftiness of purpose. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and command respect,
As to purity, what could the Filipina not hold up to the others! It should be remembered that where nobody flees, there is no pursuer; when there is no little fish, there can not be a big one.
Why does the girl not require of her lover an honored name and a high spirit incapable of being satisfied with engendering slaves? When she is married, she must aid her husband, always remembering that there is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery.
Open your children's eyes so that they may jealously guard their honor, love their fellow-men and their native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them that they must prefer dying with honor to living in dishonor.
The women of Sparta should serve you as an example in this; I shall give you some of their characteristics.When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she said nothing to him but this: "Return with it, or on it", which meant, come back victorious or dead, because it was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, and the dead warrior was carried home on his shield.
Of all women—a woman said jestingly—only you Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural—they replied—of all women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born to live for himself alone, but for his native land. So long as this way of thinking prevailed and they had that kind of women in Sparta, no enemy was able to put his foot upon her soil.
I do not pretend to be believed with the eyes closed; what I ask of all is to think it over and sift it carefully through the sieve of reason.
First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the part of others.
Second. What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and object fear of him who holds one in contempt.
Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is.
Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellow man, because he who refuses protection to others will find himself without it.
Fifth. If the Filipino will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her merely give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray husband, child, native land, and all.
Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him deceived by others.
Seventh. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider what they are preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the masses, novenas, rosaries, scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc., etc., investigate whence they came and whither they go, and then compare that religion with the pure religion of Christ and see whether that pretended observance of the life of Christ does not remind you of the fat milch cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat not through love of the animal, but for grossly mercenary motives.
Let us therefore reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with success; may you in the garden of learning gather choice fruit, looking well before you eat, because on the surface of the globe all is deceit and often the enemy sows weeds in your seeding-plot.
All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot.
JOSE RIZAL
Abridged by J.R. Lim