The
Declining Position of Women
•The
freedom and influence possessed during the 1st centuries
of Islam severely declined. Male-dominated Abbasid
society imagined that women possessed incurable lust, and
therefore men needed to be segregated from all but the women
of their family.
•The
harem and the veil symbolized subjugation to males.
•The
seclusion of elite women, wives and concubines, continued, and
the practice of veiling spread to all.
