Читать книгу Woman Triumphant - Rudolf Cronau - Страница 20

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While thus the followers of Christ reformed the position of woman in the Roman empire, Mohammed, the founder of Islam or Mohammedanism, at the same time endeavored to better the condition of woman in the Orient. Born about the year 570 A. D. in Arabia he recognized, that the domestic life of the Arabs was marked by many embarrassing improprieties. Polygamy was customary everywhere, and while among the rich people the wife was nothing but a toy, for no other purpose but to satisfy passion, among the poorer classes she was merely a suppressed slave, who could be sent away, when she was no longer young, or had lost her good looks, or had become unable to work. Concubinage and prostitution prevailed among the population of the cities as well as among the Bedouins, who led the same nomadic life as had the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob several thousand years ago.

To improve the position of woman, Mohammed inserted in the Koran, his great moral codex, a number of instructions, which shine forth like gold threads in the fabric of a beautiful curtain. He ordered the men to treat their wives with forbearance and respect, as was becoming in the stronger toward the weaker sex. Children were impressed to give love and comfort to their parents to the end of their days and show them the highest reverence.

To diminish polygamy and to give women a secure legal standing, Mohammed also reduced the number of lawful wives to four, and allowed this number to such men only as were wealthy enough to provide for certain comforts. Furthermore, he placed the men under the obligation, to be faithful to their wives and treat all with equal kindness.

VEILED.

To protect women from the many temptations of too close a social intercourse with men, Mohammed took pains to exclude women as much as possible from contact with the outer world. Therefore he insisted on the strict observance of the ancient Oriental custom that women must not appear in the streets or in presence of other men than their husbands except with their faces heavily veiled. This order has been observed in all Mohammedan countries up to the present day. Only slaves and peasant women are allowed to go unveiled, as the veil would hinder them at work. Therefore, outsiders can study the features of Mohammedan women only from members of the lower classes. To find out who is who among the veiled females seen in the streets of oriental cities is impossible even for their own husbands.

About the domestic life of Mohammedan women during former centuries we know practically nothing, as reliable reports by disinterested observers are wanting. But the fact that Mohammedan homes and family life were always secluded from the external world and inaccessible to Christian explorers travelling through oriental countries, rendered the subject peculiarly liable to highly exaggerated and sensational reports. Especially the life in the “Harem,” the women’s quarter, has been pictured innumerable times as a combination of boundless luxuriance, lascivity, frivolity, laziness and intrigues. In contradiction several ladies, who had a chance to study Mohammedan life during the last century, have asserted, that these reports do not, by any means, correspond with the truth. There is for instance an essay of Else Marquardsen about the manners of the Turks, in which she discusses polygamy. She says: “Throughout the course of many years I was allowed to visit the homes of many prominent people as well as of the poorer classes, but I remember only one case, where a man, a high official, had more than one wife. As a rule I found in all families a spirit of quiet faithfulness to duty, such as it is not always the case among us. The women, often compelled to live together with the mother or other female relatives of their husbands, maintain a good-natured kindness toward each other, which is really solacing and knows no exception. The great devotion, shown to the mother by her son as well as by his wife, and which makes her the most respected member of the whole family, is an education in humility and self-control, the results of which fill one with admiration. As the life of the Mohammedan woman, of which her husband forms the center, is one of repose and seclusion, so she retains a child-like disposition of sentiment which is indeed touching. Unlike as it is with us, she is reared in full knowledge of the natural destination of woman. As soon as she has developed from childhood to womanhood, she is offered to a man, unknown to her, but whom she respects as the god-sent medium to impart the sacred mystery by which she may become a mother. As he gives her the crown of life, she honors him as her lord. But if it should be her fate to remain barren, then she does as Sarah, Leah and Rachel did several thousand years ago; she goes to find another woman, by whom her husband may have children.”

The marriageable age for Mohammedan girls is about twelve, sometimes less and sometimes more, and the preliminaries are entirely a business matter conducted by the nearest relatives with much ceremony. After a definite contract is made it is then that the bride is permitted to see and speak to her future husband.