The Parable of the Good Samaritan Woman: The Importance of Faith- and Gender-Responsive Humanitarian Programming Through a Feminist Solidarity Reading of Luke 10:30-37

Women and girls’ struggle for equality is perhaps nowhere as vital to support as in the humanitarian sphere, where scenarios of violence and global responses to violence are pressing realities. The biblical parable of the Good Samaritan depicts a parallel scenario, framed as an ethical reflection on the divine command to love. This article reads the parable through the lens of feminist solidarity, recasting the two main characters as women and considering the interactions between the characters in turn, drawing on critical theory to highlight key issues for women in humanitarian contexts. An ethic grounded in feminist solidarity emerges in relation to the wounded woman at the heart of the parable who has suffered violence. This woman is figured as femina sacra (the female counterpart to homo sacer), thereby underscoring her vulnerability to violence in the humanitarian sphere. The Good Samaritan Woman recognizes femina sacra’s full humanity and their shared vulnerability in the world while the passers-by fail to truly see her and discharge their responsibility to their fellow human. The gendered aspect of the interpretation illuminates the complex realities of identity and the effects of structural trauma. The reading gives form to a new expression of the ethical foundation for active promotion of gender- and faith-responsive humanitarian programming.