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And those tend to be male more than female even today. Prior to 1800 (1900 for areas outside Europe and North America) most people could not read and write (Literacy increased from about 1200 onward but majority of people did not learn to read and write till after 1900). This restricted our source of what happened in the past. In Islamic territories Reading and Writing increased after Mohammad (needed to be able to read the Koran) but declined after 1258 when the Mongols took Baghdad and the raise of the Ottoman Empire.
Remember prior to 1800 90% of people world wide lived in RURAL AREAS. This was higher outside Europe, which had the highest urban population. This restricted what EITHER sex can do, it was farming in a farming area, or herding in areas to dry for farming. This is what people did, you have to eat.
It was rare for people to move more than miles in their life (you did have people move clear across the world, but these were exceptions NOT the rule). Movement of Goods were harder, if you were on the Coast, movement of goods were relativity easy, but inland it was harder and harder. Europe became the center of the world for it had the largest Coastline in the world and as such had the lowest costs of transportation. The rest of the world had less coastline do to the fact the other continents are larger, but more compact. This makes transportation harder, especially of Goods. This restricted how people can trade and interact. Rivers are a major exception to this rule, for the River acts as a roads, rivers keep people together, forcing them to think as one people and thus one culture. This restricts what people can do, more than any religious restrictions.
For example, several Historians have pointed out that they seems to have been NO CHANGE in how Rural Egyptians have lived since the time of the Pharaohs. The reason is the need to re-divide the River Valley after each year's flood (Which only ended with the building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s). Do to this need for constant re-division of the land Egypt has ALWAYS had some sort of bureaucrat to do such re-division. During the times of the Pharaoh this was done by the Temple Priests, this lasted till Egypt turn Christian around 400 AD. Christian Priests did the re-division each year till long after the the Arab Conquest (It is believed Egypt was more Christian than Islamic till the end of the Crusades when the Rulers of Egypt re-trained the Islamic religious leaders to perform the job of land division and Egypt started to become majority Islamic).
As to women's rights, it increased in most Islamic countries, until about the 1600s. Women had a place, but in rural agricultural areas women HAD to work with men, and that cultural restriction prevented widespread suppression of Women's rights. This change in the 1600s as the Turks (who had been the main force for Islam since about 900 AD, at first the Seljeks and than after about 1300 the Ottomans) started to decline. The Ottomans covered this up using Islam, but Islam as part of the overall Turkish culture. No Ottoman Sultan ever technically married, their harems were made up of what we would call Mistresses (Concubines) as opposed to wives. Wives had rights, and no Moslem could have more than Four at any one time, the Turkish Sultan could have hundreds of Concubines and since they claim to be Caliphs in addition to being Sultans, they ruled what they were doing was Islamic (Even through most Islamics rejected this view AND the fact that the Sultan was also the Caliph, The Shiites have NOT agreed on the Caliph since the death of Mohammad Son-in-law, the Sunnis have not agreed on a Caliph since the taking of Baghdad in 1258 AD). The dancing of women in front of Men and Women was from this time post-1600 period, as real rights of women declined. The dancing was part of the decline, Women competing with each other based on their attractiveness to men, as opposed to what they can do themselves.
It is this decline that caught people's idea of "Islamic world", the belly dancer were always a sub-topic of this idealized story, the Arabic Horse Races, all decadent by 18th Century Puritan outlook. As more and more people learned to read after 1800, these stories expanded. Movies of the 20th century expanded this idea. The truth was otherwise, but that was not marketable. Even today, Turkey was "Secularized" in 1924, and while women rights were technically expanded, in reality women no longer had to wear long dresses and keep their faces covered, but children still went to Fathers not Mothers in custody disputes, Adultery was still only a crime a female could do and her property was her husbands to do with as he saw fit. This was true under Islam, and pre-Islam. Most of what is view as Anti-Women in Islam, predates Islam and is independent of Islam. Some of this anti-women view was incorporated into Islam (as similar anti-women view was incorporated into Christianity and even Communism under Stalin and his successors). These were things Mohammad did not think could be changed.
For example, Mohammad's First Wife, and the Mother of ALL of his children, was at first his EMPLOYER and he accepted that role, it is believed she proposed to him and he viewed her as his partner in his business. When he saw his vision she was his first convert, but she retained the rights to her own property to her death, something Mohammad accepted as her RIGHT. Of his children only his Daughter Fatima had Children (To her Husband Ali), anyone who claims decent from Mohammad does it through Fatima and Ali. This is a Big factor among Shiites, less a factor among Sunnis. This reflects Mohammad's and Mohammad's First Wife role as business partners in their home town. This continues till this day, but one of the reason Mohammad's First Wife married him, was she was restricted on who she could deal with based on the then existing cultural norms. Both of them accepted these norms. These norms had existed in Arabia for Millennia before Islam, and exist to this day (In fact Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries were woman can NOT drive, even in radical Iran, women can drive and hold office, again a result of the Iranian Culture, which has never been as anti-Women as the Arabs).
My point is the problem is not Islam, but people who want to use it (like people have used other theology, like Christianity, Buddhism, Social Darwinism and even Communism) to advance their own agenda. It is less the Theology then the people who want results who then use a theology that they can use to get that result. You can say this about "Radical" anything, Islam, Social Darwinism, Communism etc. The issue is NOT Theology, but People.
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