Women In Mesopotamia

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Based on our five sources, we can argue that women in Mesopotamia did not have equal rights. They had their mouth scoured with salt and were put in pain for back talking and speaking badly. Men were not put in harm’s way like women were. We can also argue that social class was very important. If a low class slave did something bad to a high class person, then he would either have to pay or get whiped by an ox-whip in front of a lot of people. They would have to watch that man suffer. Which suffering from sixty blows of an ox-whip in public is as bad as women having their mouth scoured with salt, but women did deal with a lot worse. They had to deal with the pain of one quart of salt being forced in their mouths. Which salt can actually harm the body. …show more content…
Also, if a woman happened to be a “second wife”, she should not be allowed to be treated equally. In Hammurabi’s code, it states that “If a man take a wife, and she bear him no children, and he intend to take another wife, if he takes this second wife and brings her into the house, this second wife shall not be allowed equality with his wife” Basically this code is saying that if a women doesn’t have any children, and he intends to take another wife and decides to bring her into the house, she should not be treated as equally because she wasn’t first. She isn’t as important as the first wife so she shouldn’t be allowed to be treated equally. They were not allowed honoring slave-women in their house. He said that if she rules the house that she is basically disrupting. He is stating everything a women shouldn’t be allowed to do but he is not stating anything that a women can do that won’t get them in trouble, get hurt, or make them feel disrespected. This is like saying that women are allowed in the house, but they are not allowed touching anything or give any rules or suggestions. “Do not honor a slave-girl in your house; she should not rule your bedroom like a wife, do not give