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. Through the influence of the European women educators, an emancipation movement has been started among the younger generation of women in Constantinople. Many fathers, often through vanity, have given their daughters a European education. Elementary schools, secondary schools, and technical schools have existed in Turkey and Egypt since 1839. The women graduates of these schools are now opposing oriental marriage and life in the harem. At present this is causing tragic conflicts.[111] To the present, two Turkish women have spoken publicly at international congresses of women. Selma Riza, sister of the "Young Turkish" General, Ahmed Riza, spoke in Paris in 1900, and Mrs. Haïrie Ben-Aid spoke in Berlin in 1904. The Mohammedan women have a legal supporter of their demands in Kassim Amin Bey, counselor of the Court of Appeals in Cairo. In his pamphlet on the woman's rights question he proposes the following programme:-- Legal prohibition of polygamy. Woman's right to file a divorce suit. (Hitherto a woman is divorced if her husband, even without cause, says thee times consecutively "You are divorced.") Woman's freedom to choose her husband. The training of women in independent thought and action. A thorough education for woman. In 1910 a congress of Mohammedan women will be held in Cairo.