Marital Rights Quotes
This quote is from notes by James Beck, October 8, 1861 on which he later enscribed "I do not vouch for the correctness of this by any means as my experience is that the memory of man is treacherous. – JA Beck”
At the time, in many states married women could not control their own inheritance, could not sign a contract, owned no part of a family business that a women might have founded and worked in her entire life, could not be an executor of a will—even if it were her husband’s.
This is a particularly interesting passage of the Koran. On the one hand it provides the religious justification for the sexist dominance of the male in a marriage. However, at the same time, it gave wives rights at a time when few cultures and religions did--such as the right to own and inherit property. Women in the Western world did not obtain some of these rights until the last hundred years. So historically, Islam was somewhat ahead of Christianity when Muhammed lived, but while most Western interpretations of gender role and rights have changed and advanced, a small minority of Islam has been reformist and modern so Islam has gone from a leader in modern gender relations to an obstacle to equality and fairness by not changing and reforming.
The decree prevents a married woman from obtaining a passport without her husbands written approval. The reference to criminals is because the Egyptian Constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights provides the right of any Egyptian to travel or leave the country except for criminals who have been properly adjudicated.
