Roles of Men and Women in Islam and Byzantium

Jed Rainey

12/11/16

“The family, from the Great Palace of Constantinople down to the smallest village, was the Byzantines' basic social unit.” (Rautman, Background Essay). During the existence of the Byzantine empire, which spanned from 667 BC to 1461 AD, the individual family was a sacred piece of their social structure. After Justinian I and Theodora came into power, the roles of Byzantine women became dramatically more important, as Theodora came from a family where she knew the struggle of ordinary women. Similarly, Muslim women were important during the era of prosperity of the Islamic caliphates. The prophet Muhammad founded the religion during the year 610 AD and even after he died, his teachings influenced many people who at different points were in control of all the territory that had been claimed in Europe and Asia. The Islamic Empire did not have a clear-cut end or downfall, but rather it split up and was not as prevalent as it used to be.

The Qu’ran by nature gives women plenty of individual rights, but it is up to the local mosques and religious leaders to interpret the minutia of what they want the men and women to do or not to do (PBS, More rights than one might think). We establish our stereotypes of demure Muslim women who have to cover almost their entire body with clothes and veils, but many communities are not so strict. The Bible does not speak as frequently regarding the appearance of men or women. While it does imply, like the Qu’ran, that the husband is the dominant member of the family: “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.” (ESV Bible 1 Corinthians 11:3). Within mosques, women can lead a group of other women in prayer but not men. Also, at home, a Muslim woman may only lead the family in prayer if the husband is not present. The Bible, however, puts no clear restraints on women as far as the church and worship are concerned.

In everyday life viewed through the political lens, men were not the only ones to maintain positions in Islamic as well as Byzantine government. While women held government positions, they were not documented nearly as well as their male counterparts. Even though the actual holy books were generally lax about restrictions on women, the societies were a different story. There was sexism embedded in both cultures. Men would abuse women to vent their anger about other matters, and a women could not easily divorce if the husband did not want to. While historical feminist figures such as Theodora were prominent during certain time periods, the vast majority of them stayed inside all day and did mundane, household chores.

While the women in the Byzantine empire were slowly accreting freedoms, nothing changed quickly. Not only would men abuse their wives, they would also forbid them from ever leaving the house and sentence them to devoting all of their time to do useless busywork to vaunt the man’s authority and make him seem more powerful. In the Islamic Empire, the situation was different because the holy book stipulated more freedoms and boundaries for Muslim women. For instance, it directly states that: “O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad).” (Qu’ran, 33:59). The message of this verse is to show that while women and daughters can leave the house, they must remember not to be bold or pretentious.

Overall, the roles of men and women in these ancient societies were different in many ways, but they relied on each other just as they do in today’s day and age. The Islamic Empire had a more scripted view regarding the role of women which was verbatim out of the Qu’ran, while in the Byzantine Empire with the Eastern Orthodox Church, more choices had to be made by the state because the Bible was not used as heavily for those purposes. Justinian I was a proponent for domestic reforms that positively affected the lives of many women. Today, females in our communities are much less restrained to taking care of the house and can go after their own interests, just like men can. Our global society has come a long way since these reign of these ancient empires.

Works Cited

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