How did gender relations change from early Bedouin and Islamic societies to later Islam? Is marital aspects 1?

Is that a good thesis statement for that question?:

In early Bedouin and Islamic societies, women had far more rights in regard to marriage. Later Islamic societies, however, had far different marital relations between men and women.



Or are marital rights not gender relations?How did gender relations change from early Bedouin and Islamic societies to later Islam? Is marital aspects 1?
I think it is a great thesis. Good, in every religion, must push against those who would derail the religion for political and monetary gain.



Here is a website from which to base your paper:



http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhv



Global Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls

Speaking Out and Providing Services



...Islamic fundamentalism establishes its thesis on the differences between the sexes and the conclusion that the male is superior, and hence, the female is a slave at his service. A parliamentarian in Iran is on record as saying, ';Women must accept the reality of men dominating them, and the world must recognize the fact that men are superior.'; Ultimately, the fundamentalists do not believe women are human. One of the Iranian regime檚 key ideologues says: ';Women and men are equal in their humane essence, but they are two different forms of humans, with two different sets of attributes and two different psyches...';



From the fundamentalist mullahs?perspective, sexual vice and virtue are the principal criteria for evaluation of women. The most ignoble and unforgivable of all sins is sexual wrongdoing. Piety, chastity and decency are measured by sex-related yardsticks, and seldom applied to political and social realms. Fundamentalism conceives of woman as sinister and satanic; she is the embodiment of sin and seduction. She must not step beyond her house, lest her presence in society breed sin. She must stay at home, serving her husband檚 carnal desires; if she fails to comply, she is compelling her man to commit sin outside the home.



The top officials of the fundamentalist regime in Iran emphasize that it is the ';sacred'; responsibility of a woman to serve her husband and take care of the household. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the mullahs?';supreme leader,'; has declared that ';women檚 first job is to be a wife and mother.'; Khamenei dismissed the notion of women檚 equal participation in social life in July 1997 as ';negative, primitive and childish.';



...Mullah Mohammad Yazdi, the Head of the Judiciary, also emphasizes the subservience of women: ';If kneeling before God were not obligatory, wives should have knelt before their husbands.'; He also said: ';A woman is wholly the possession of her husband, and her public life is conditional upon her husband檚 consent.';



These blatantly prejudiced views shed light on how discriminatory legislation against women has been proposed, adopted, and enforced in Iran since 1979. All the existing laws in Iran, which deal with the rights of women, arise from the stereotyped presumption that men are endowed with the right to dominate women. A man can divorce his wife freely and has the right to retain custody of their children. Article 105 of the Civil Code stipulates: ';In the relationship between husband and wife, heading the family is characteristic of the husband.'; The Islamic Council of Guardians decreed that ';a woman does not have the right to leave her home without her husband檚 permission, even to attend her father檚 funeral.';



Sale of Girl Children



Girl children suffer the worst conditions in Iran today. According to the clerical regime檚 rules and regulations, a girl child can virtually be bought and sold with the consent of her male guardian. Article 1041 of the Civil Code provides that 楳arriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.';



It has become common practice to sell or force very young girls to marry much older husbands, giving rise to all sorts of social ills. Adineh magazine wrote in summer 1991: ';An 11-year-old girl was married off to a 27-year-old man. The father, who had seven daughters, received $300 for his consent. The morning after the marriage ceremonies, the girl was taken to hospital suffering from severe lacerations to her genitals.';



The state-controlled daily, Ressalat, reported on December 15, 1991, that due to extreme poverty and the absence of the most basic facilities, the deprived people of northern Khorassan sell their young girls for as little as $33. The buyers, mostly from Gonabad, take the girls away and put them to work on farms and in workshops. In the impoverished province of Sistan-Baluchistan (southeastern Iran), girls eight - ten years old are sold by their drug-addicted parents for $4.



Rape of Female Prisoners



In a report on November 22, 1994, the United Nations Special Rapportuer on violence against women said ';the public stoning and lashing of women serves to institutionalize violence against women. The Special Rapportuer has received many allegations of such violent punishments being inflicted on women in the Islamic Republic of Iran.';



According to a special ';religious decree'; issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, virgin women prisoners must be raped before execution to prevent their going to heaven. A Guard conducts the rape the night before their murder. The next day, the religious judge at the prison issues a marriage certificate and sends it to the victim檚 family, along with a box of sweets.



Tens of thousands of women have been subjected to cruel torture and execution. One method is particularly revealing: the Revolutionary Guards fire a single bullet into the womb of women political prisoners, leaving them to bleed to death in a slow process of excruciating pain.



In an eyewitness report, Amnesty International revealed how the small children of many young women in Evin Prison are viciously abused. Witness Helmut Szimkus, a German engineer, told Amnesty International they are kept ';because they are an asset to the prison authorities for gaining confessions.'; Szimkus, who was released after serving a lengthy sentence in an Iranian prison, said he witnessed several cases where Iranian children were tortured in the presence of their parents. ';One time these guys [torturers] raped a nine-year-old girl. The parents had to watch. The father shook and rattled so badly that he could no longer sign the espionage confession they put before him.';



Rampant Prostitution



The social environment imbedded in the misogynous views, laws and policies of the fundamentalist regime naturally spawns corruption, making it increasingly difficult for women to survive. Women bear the brunt of the economic difficulties and social barriers and restrictions. Large numbers of deprived women have been forced into prostitution or become addicted to drugs. Meanwhile, the clerical regime, touting Islam, claims to accord ';divine respect'; to women.



';It is appalling. Never has prostitution been so rampant. But everything is done behind the veil,'; Mahin, a 47-year old female Iranian jurist purged by the mullahs, told Helen Kami, the French journalist for Elle magazine who visited Iran in January 1997. Kami writes: ';Prostitutes regularly roam Gandhi Street in north Tehran. At 5 p.m., we go to Istanbuli Street, also in north Tehran. The cab drivers, looking for wealthy or foreign patrons, are driving slowly. In exchange for only $1 (500 Tomans), they can provide you with girls, alcoholic beverages, heroin and hashish.';