Saudi scholar finds ancient women's rights

[struggle4progress]

Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:45pm EDT
By Andrew Hammond

... In her study, "Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia", the outspoken rights advocate <Hatoon al-Fassi> argues women in the pre-Islamic period enjoyed considerable rights in the Nabataean state, an urban Arabian kingdom centered in modern Jordan, south Syria and northwest Saudi Arabia during the Roman empire ...

"One of the objectives of this book is to question the assumption of subordination of women in pre-Islamic Arabia," Fassi writes. "Most of the practices related to women's status are based on some local traditional practices that are not necessarily Islamic. Nor are they essentially Arabian" ...

Nabataean queens had coins struck in their name and showing their face, with light hair-covering veils. Today, Saudi clerics expound at length on television and in other forums on the complex rules over when women can and cannot reveal their faces ...

An urbanized Bedouin state, Nabataea has received relatively little attention from scholars, some of whom question whether it was authentically Arab. Petra was even forgotten to history until "discovered" in 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt. ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSL136115520080501

[provis99]

1. "urbanized Bedouin"? That's an oxymoron

About like saying inner city farmer.

[Book Lover]

2. Fascinating

and definitely on my growing list of books to read. Thanks so much!