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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

History The History of the Veil

Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 3:34 PM

One more thing about David Graeber's magnificent book Debt: The First 5000 Years: It reveals the source of the veil in the Islamic world to be a solution to a serious problem that second millennium B.C. Assyrian society had with money and prostitution. Money could be used to purchase sex from poor women. For women from rich families, women who had an honor-value, to distinguish themselves from poor women, women who sold their bodies for money and therefore had no honor-value for their families, veils were introduced into Assyrian law.

"The code carefully distinguishes among five classes of women. Respectable women (whether married or concubines) widows, and daughters of free Assyrian men—"must veil themselves" when they go out on the street. Prostitutes and Slaves (prostitutes are now considered to include unmarried temple servants as well as simple harlots) are not allowed to wear veils.

The remarkable thing about the laws is that the punishments specified in the code are not directed at respectable women who do not wear veils, but against prostitutes and slaves who do. The prostitute was to be publicly beaten fifty times with staves and pitch poured on her head: the slave girl was to have her ears cut off. Free men proven to have knowingly abetted an imposter would be trashed and put to a month's forced labor. Presumably in the case of respectable women, the law was assumed to be self-enforcing...

Islam seems to have democratized the veil. In this way it might have been progressive.

Comments (6) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

A fascinating insight. Thanks.

The punishments are abhorrent, but the seriousness of one aspect depends on the definition of "pitch": if hardened pine sap, probably boiled to soften, resulting in serious burns and possibly death; if tar from seeps, disfiguring and basically unremovable until hair grows out and it can be cut off.

Posted by rob!

on August 30, 2011 at 3:51 PM

You teach writing at the college level?

Posted by whomever whilst have me on August 30, 2011 at 4:09 PM

Progressive? To take a law that was created over 4,000 years ago, and "democratized" 1500 years ago, might have been progressive 1500 years ago. Clinging to it today is medieval.

Posted by johnyawl on August 30, 2011 at 4:26 PM

The middle east: seriously fucked up for four millenia.

Posted by Don't you think he looks tired? on August 30, 2011 at 4:39 PM