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Within China and the Islamic world for a time period of VIII- XV, the gender structure allowed women to have certain rights relating in different aspects, depending on the region. Their gender structure in the both societies had various customs such as receiving education, but at the same time they differed in many social aspects as foot binding in China and polygamy in Islam. Islamic women were fortunate to have their rights basically because the Koran said so. The holy book allowed women not only to inherit property, but also to engage in businesses. Women could also influence in political matters and influence in religion. But even when religion can be influenced by women, they can’t be caliphs. In wars women can be used as soldiers, if warriors were needed females intervened to help the injured or even to fight. One woman who could serve as an example with the privileges and rights women had in Islam is Fatimah. She was the daughter of the prophet Muhammad and the first wife, (who is the most important wife in Islam), of Ali. She is known as being the “pure one” and as being the role model both for men and women in Islam. She helped the people that were hurt in the //jihad’s// and made several political acts, such as fighting Abu Bakr for the property rights of her father after he died. Fatimah represents a lot how some women became as important as men in Islam history. However, Islamic women also faced some inconveniency. Men would have certain advantages that women wouldn’t. For example, men could marry women who didn’t belong in the Muslim world. On the other side, women would only marry Muslim men. Another marriage issue was polygamy, men even when it wasn’t necessary, had the opportunity to marry up to four wives. Still, Islam treated women with a lot of equality in relation to the rest of the world during those days. Besides, the marriage could serve them for protection. Mohammad said to marry many women in order to protect them and to aid their loneliness. Chinese gender roles also balanced men and women with a relative equality comparing to the outside world. Since China was socially divided with scholars at the top, women had opportunities in China. Their opportunity depended on the philosophies. For example in Daoism, the head of the family was the female. In the other hand, during Confucianism the head of the family was the male. China normally didn’t allow polygamy, so men and women had justice in marriage issues until certain points. But even when Chinese females lived with certain rights, men had been the priority. The population was made up mostly of men not women. Although women had certain privileges, they had to suffer a lot too. For example the practice of foot- binding, which was made at the beginning only to elite women and started in the Sung dyansty, represented the power of men to afford a wife who couldn’t do any work, and lived solely for the service of their men and their household. China was a communist society in which everybody participated in order to have a better community instead of having personal achievements. Men, who received more privileges than women, were who mostly contributed with work, in China’s communist society. Islam and Chinese women had more privileges than any other women in the world had. They could both receive education. Even salve girls could be thought in the Islamic society. In China, women could also be educated because China depended on the intellect of its people, and since women could also help the others, it was necessary for them to study. However, women still were seen as inferior towards men. Polygamy existed in the Islamic world, only for men’s benefit. In China, when the Mongols arrived in the Yuan dynasty, they also permitted polygamous marriages. Even when women could contribute to the world, they supported society in lesser amounts due to their more limited privileges. Chinese women weren’t the merchants that helped the economy; they were not used for trade since it would be strange for the other economic partners. Intellectually, the astrolabe, gun powder or other Chinese developments wouldn’t benefit them as much since they weren’t as involved as males. But again, they had certain privileges. China and Islam females weren’t as restrained and relegated as they would normally be elsewhere, but still, men acted with hegemony. The contributions of females didn’t affect the world as those of men did, probably because of their lack of privileges. Marriage was unfair to them, even when it could be used for their protection, like in Islam. Rights to have an education in China were still inferior to the education that men could have. But at least in this region women had the right for education. Females historically have mostly been treated in an inferior way, so any woman that was Islamic or lived in China wasn’t as disprivileged in that time period, compared with other places in the world.
 * Compare and Contrast the gender structure of the Islamic and the Chinese empire from 700CE- 1500CE.Be sure to include economic as well as intellectual aspects that affected the way women were perceived as different or the same as men. **

Essay written by: Sebastian Pozo Edited by: Jessica Guggenbuhl Bibliography: Wikipedia, (2010), Foot- binding, retrieved on 08.06.10 from [] Wikipedia,(2010), Fatimah, retrieved on 08.06.10 from []