Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/56

 In "The Crescent and the Cross," Warburton says that Moslem women do not show any discontent with their condition. They like to be watched and guarded closely, and discern no "degradation" in the life of seclusion in the harems. No doubt this is true in regard to the majority of women in the East. The majority everywhere are, as a rule, fairly satisfied with their position. But it is beyond question that dissatisfaction exists among many educated women in Mohammedan countries. There is a "feminist movement" in every civilised state; and educated women in Turkey and Egypt and India hold meetings to-day to discuss the rights of their sex. Some of these conclaves are attended by men, who listen attentively to the pleas and arguments of the women.

While we must grant that there was a stage in pre-Moslem times, in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, in which women seem to have occupied an inferior station, the attitude of men was not usually contemptuous or harsh. Woman has always been endowed with mysterious, and often sacred, attributes. Amongst the ancient Arabs the touch of a woman could save a malefactor on the way to execution. So strong was this belief that criminals were led through streets blindfolded.