CHAPTER IV
THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST
In the Orient and the Far East woman is almost without exception a plaything or a beast of burden; and to a degree that would incense us Europeans. In the uncivilized countries, and in the countries of non-European civilization, the majority of the women are insufficiently nourished; in all cases more poorly than the men. Early marriages enervate the women. They are old at thirty; this is especially true of the lower classes. Among us, to be sure, such cases occur also; unfortunately without sufficient censure being given when necessary. But we have abolished polygamy and the harem. Both still exist almost undisturbed in the Orient and the Far East.
TURKEY AND EGYPT
Total population: 34,000,000.
A federation of women’s clubs has just been founded in each country.
In all the Mohammedan countries the wealthy woman lives in the harem with her slaves. The woman of the lower classes, however, is guarded or restricted no more than with us. Apparently the Turkish and the Arabian women of the lower classes have an unrestrained existence. But because they are subject to the absolute authority of their husbands, their life is in most cases that of a beast of burden. They work hard and incessantly. For the Mohammedan of the lower classes polygamy is economically a useful institution: four women are four laborers that earn more than they consume.
Domestic service offers workingwomen in the Orient the broadest field of labor. The women slaves in the harems[110] are usually well treated, and they have sufficient to live on. They associate with women shopkeepers, women dancers, midwives, hairdressers, manicurists, pedicures, etc. These are in the pay of the wives of the wealthy. Thanks to this army of spies, a Turkish woman is informed, without leaving her harem, of every step of her husband.
The oppression that all women must endure, and the general fear of the infidelity of husbands, have created among oriental women an esprit de corps that is unknown to European women. Among the upper classes polygamy is being abolished because the country is impoverished and the large estates have been squandered; moreover, each wife is now demanding her own household, whereas formerly the wives all lived together.