WOMEN AND THEIR STATUS IN ISLAM
WOMEN AND THEIR STATUS IN ISLAM INTRODUCTION In Christian Europe, according to Jewish and Christian writers, woman was, on the one hand, regarded as the origin of sin and human ills, and represented as the door of hell and the organ of the devil; on the other hand, the question is discussed in the open conference in the 6 th century A.D. whether she can at all be called a human being. In Persia she was sold and mortgaged as a piece of movable property and pawned in gambling; Yasdjurd, the Persian Emperor, marries his own daughter and later kills her. In India she was pawned in gambling and treated as a slave; she was debarred from reading religious books, and bound to burn herself alive on the pier of her dead husband. As regards her position in China, and Japan, the Japanese know better what position she held. In Arabia she occupied the worst position; girls were buried alive, wives were treated as slaves, and mothers were distributed among the sons as inherited property....