Mr Khan said:
It was the year 620 or so. Girls got married younger then (i mean, 13 was the average age amongst the puritans as late as 1000 years later in Europe) Islam was actually fairly progressive for women's rights at the time. I mean, we all look at the whole divorce thing (with women needing evidence while a man must simply declare it before witnesses), but that's better than how it was in Arabia before Muhammed came around. |
This is true, and actually the Arab dinasties, that survived in Sicily until 1091 and in Spain until 1492, were more progressive and tolerant that most Europeans (but even they became tolerant only after completely defeating the people they invaded), but with the decline of Arab dynasties in the rest of the Islam, a lot less tolerant interpretation of islamic rules started being used as a weapon to impose a much more authoritarian power on the Islamic people themselves by many Turkish sultans (although also during their domination there were many enlightened sultans). The revenge of Arabs and other conquered Islamic people against the declining Turkish rulers coincided in many countries, and in Turkey itself even more strongly than outside of it, after the downfall of sultans, with a new modernization of Islam that lasted until Khomeini and others started again using a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam as a weapon.
Also, condition of women already started becoming less modern towards the end of Abbasid period.
