AssyriaGURVIR BHULLAR

HIST 134

The status and role

of women

Ancient Assyrians were inhabitants of one the worlds earliest civilizations,

Mesopotamia, which began to emerge around 3500 B.C. The Assyrians invented the worlds first
written language and the 360-degree circle, established Hammurabis code of law, and are
credited with many other military, artistic, and architectural achievements. For 300 years
Assyrians controlled the entire Fertile crescent from the Persian Gulf of Egypt. Assyria is located
in north Mesopotamia and spans four countries. Assyrians are a Semitic peoples indigenous to
Mesopotamia.
Assyrians have used two languages throughout their history: ancient Assyrian
(Akkadian), and modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). Assyrians have practiced two religions
throughout their history: Ashurism and Christianity. Assyrians were famous for controlling such
a large and diverse empire. The expanded from a little part of Sumer into an empire that
stretched from eastern Mediterranean coast to the head of the Persian Gulf. Assyria existed from
c.2500 to 612 BC.
In general, womens rights in Mesopotamia were not equal to those of men. But in early
periods women were free to go out to the marketplaces, bet and sell, attend to legal matters for
their absent men, own their own property, borrow and lend, and engage in business for
themselves. High status women, such as priestesses and members of royal families, might learn
to read and write and be given considerable administrative authority. Numerous powerful
goddesses were worshipped; in some city states they were the primary deities.
From the earliest times in ancient Mesopotamia, women who came from a sector of
society that could afford to have statues made places their likenesses in temple shrines. This was
done so that their images would stand in constant prayer while they continued to go about their
saily chores. This female worshipper statue wears a standard fashion of the time, a simple draped

dress with her right shoulder bare and hair done up in elaborate braided curls. The Mesopotamia
womans role was strictly defined. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband.
Women rarely acted as individuals outside the context of their families. Those who did so were
usually royalty or the wives of men who had power and status.
However, as the polytheistic religion practiced by Mesopotamians included both gods
and goddesses, women were also priestesses, some of them not only important, but powerful. A
family might sell their daughter into prostitution or slavery. Prostitution, however, was not
regarded as vile or degrading at that time. In fact, a form of sacred prostitution in the temples
existed side by side with secular prostitution.
Womens position varied between city-states and changed over time. There was an
enormous gap between the rights of high and low status women (almost half the population in
the late Babylonian period ere slaves), and female power and freedom sharply diminished during
the Assyrian era. The first evidence of laws requiring the public veiling of elite women come
from this period.
Women in Assyria may have received greater status or dignity than their counterparts in
other Middle Eastern culture have since then. In the mid-twentieth Nestorian women were
treated almost as equals with men. For example, most women considered companies to their
husbands and, as such, participated in social gathering Iraq, Assyrian Christian women were
often more literate the Muslim men. The patriarchal tradition, however, assured that male
predominance in husband-wife relations was the norm.
In Assyria, the status of women was deplorable. Assyrian men were harsh, violent, and
cruel people to their enemies and women. With the conquests of the neighboring lands, Assyria
was flooded with enormous numbers of slaves. The males were used for labor work, while

females were used as concubines and domestic slaves. To be able to distinguish between their
free honorable women from the slaves or concubines, laws were issued. Respectable women
were forced to wear the veil while those were considered unrespectable were forced to go with
their heads uncovered. Thus veil became an exclusive symbol of respect; a privilege that slaves,
prostitutes and concubines were denied off.
And with their homes flooded with slaves to run their errands, free women had no reason
to roam the streets and mingle with concubines, slaves and prostitutes. And hence, women
seclusion was born. The law for veiling he women was documented on one of the tablets that
also stated the punishment for those who broke the veil code:
If the wives of a man, or the daughters of a man go out into the street, their heads are to
be veiled. The prostitute is not to be veiled. Maidservants are not to veil themselves. Veiled
harlots and maidservants shall have their garments seized and 50 blows inflicted on them and
bitumen poured on their heads.
Modern Iranian women, especially the ones opposing the Islamic revolution and the
enforcement of the veil, are pointing fingers at the Arabs and blaming them for introducing to
veil and seclusion into the Persian society, even though historical evidence proves that it is the
other way around. The veil and the seclusion of women were among the social habits that the
Persians adopted from the Assyrians and maintained over the years. In ancient Persia, women of
noble families became also secluded and had to be covered when they went in public. And with
the Persian conquests, the veil spread to neighboring kingdoms and nations. It was introduced to
the Levant region-currently known as Syria and Lebanon- and north of Arabia. Arabs who were
separated from these surroundings civilizations by sand dunes and vast uninhabited deserts were
not introduced to the veil until the seventh century AD when they conquered the Persian lands.

The women had little participated in labor work as men. Most girls were trained from
childhood for the traditional roles of wife, mother and housekeeper. They learned how to grind
grain, how to cook and make beverages, especially beer, and how to spin and weave cloth for
clothing. If women worked outside of her home, her jobs usually grew out of her household
tasks. Childbearing and childcare roles led women to become midwives and also to create
medicines that prevented pregnancy or produced abortions. So, overall womens in Assyria
civilizations had somewhat roles and regulations.

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