Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the EastHume-Griffith, M. E.
Philosophy
Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the East
Hume-Griffith, M. E.
Arabian Peninsula -- Social life and customs; Iran -- Social life and customs
First of all he saw that the windows of his house were barricaded and
the door locked: then he stripped the trembling, frightened child,
and deliberately poured paraffin oil all over her body, and finally set
a light to her and left her to her fate, taking care to lock the door
after him, as he went out. The neighbours, hearing the girl's screams,
rushed to the house, but the doors being locked and the windows
fastened much precious time was wasted. When they finally smashed
open the window it was only to find the child a mass of flames. They
picked her up and rushed wildly with her into the street, and dropped
her into the nearest stream to quench the flames! It was a marvellous
thing to think that after all this there was any life left in the
poor child. The neighbours took her to her mother, who plastered all
her wounds with red earth and left her lying in the corner of the
room for some ten days. Then, taking the advice of some friends,
they procured a cradle and lifted the poor wee child into it, and
hoisted the cradle and its occupant on the back of a donkey, and took
her some five days' journey to Julfa. They had heard of the Mission
Hospital through some of their villagers, who had been treated there,
and so they brought this little victim of Persian cruelty to the lady
doctor, who took her in, dressed her wounds, and laid her in a clean,
comfortable bed. All that human love and kindness could do was done to
alleviate her sufferings, but nothing could save her life, and after
three days she passed away--a martyr indeed to the creed of Islam,
which enables and allows men to treat their women as something lower
than the beasts of the field.
Ought not the cries of distress and agony from the poor women of Persia
so to rouse us, their sisters in England, that we shall determine to
do all that lies in our power to lighten their burdens and to bring
some rays of light into the dark lives of our Eastern sisters?
One thing which adds greatly to the misery of these women is the
ease with which their husbands can divorce them. A wife never knows
from day to day whether or no her lord may not divorce her. Often
for most trivial matters a man will cast away his wife. This being
the case, the woman will lie and deceive her husband in order to
escape divorcement. If the wives of Persia could only be raised to
the level of true womanhood I believe they would become good wives
and mothers, but while they are what they are, how can there be any
hope for them? There is nothing but utter darkness till the true
Light shines into their lives, and then and then only will the day
break for these downtrodden, degraded beings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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