WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
At Tabriz, not very long ago, an offending woman was enclosed in a sack and clubbed to death; and there are deep wells in Persia into which adulterous wives used to be thrown. These writers say that crimes and intrigues are not infrequent in the harems.
Their testimony as to the position of women contradicts, on the whole, the views of authors already cited. "Polygamy is less general in Persia than one would believe"; but the practice is not very uncommon in the country districts. Here the men find that more than one helpmate proves useful in tillage and industry. Wife-beating is not unknown amongst the rural population, but it is not a common practice in the upper classes.
The authors of the above-mentioned work state that the temporary unions, which we have noted, were instituted as a check upon prostitution. There are courtesans in the towns, and Mr. W. S. Landor says that the diseases inseparable from sexual irregularity are common.
Schools for girls have been opened lately in the Persian cities. Some of the ladies of influential families are becoming learned, and they are able linguists, speaking several languages.[1] Nevertheless, the status of women, in the opinion of these observers, is unfavourable to their mental progress. Nor are they defenders of the position of women in
- ↑ Eustache de Lory and Douglas Sladen. Op. cit.
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