A clip out of the article (read the link below for full article): Although women in all levels of Egypian society continued to depend largely on the males of the family for sustenance and status, Egyptian women enjoyed greater freedoms and responsibilities than women anywhere else in the known world at that time. The cosmopolitan and cultured manner of Egyptian women is often emphasized in tomb paintings and reliefs and it is worth noting that the famous pharaoh Cleopatra, though Greek, adopted Egyptian ways and was noted for her refinement and charm. Women continued to be highly respected in Egypt and have equal rights with men until the coming of Christianity (which also brought a marked decline in personal hygiene since it was thought that Jesus Christ would return at any moment and so personal appearance was irrelevant and, further, attention to the body was considered vanity) which preached the inferiority of females to males and held up the example of Eve from the biblical Book of Genesis as the duplicitous standard by which all women should be judged. When Islam was brought to Egypt by the conquering Muslim forces, women enjoyed even less freedoms than they had under Christianity and the gifts of the goddess Isis, bestowed equally on men and women, were forgotten.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 06:16:05 +0000