Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/180

 rather than of religious law, the seclusion of women and the veiling of the face being immemorial social usages borrowed from other neighbouring Oriental races, and not institutions peculiarly Turkish, and no religious law would, therefore, be contravened by a change in these merely social customs."

Returning once more to the question of divorce, we must realise that it is not quite as simple a matter as it appears. A devout Mohammedan shrinks from casting aside his wife, unless the reason for so doing is exceptionally definite. He remembers the stern words of the Prophet: "The curse of Allah rests on him who capriciously repudiates his wife."

Critics of Islam, who state that the men of the East "treat women as chattels" while they are of use—and discard them with sheer callousness when they have lost the freshness of youth—should consider the testimony of the many Christian observers of Turkish home-life. As a matter of fact, in many harems old women will be seen leading contented and happy lives, surrounded by relatives and young children. The Turk does not turn out his grandmother to starve in the streets. He has rarely any inclination to do so. Moreover, his creed and the law do not allow it.

In a spirit of fair inquiry, we must listen to those travellers in Turkey who do not share the optimistic view of the writers I have quoted, and the friends with