Women in the persian letters

While the Islamic way of life is based on Sharia and have strictness when it comes to many things including the role of women and men in society, the Christian culture is based on other virtues. The Islamic religion is part of the Islamic culture believes in the existence of one God in the name of Allah and his prophet is Mohammed. On the other hand, Christianity is based on Jesus Christ who is considered as the son of God and the redeemer of all Christians from sin. According to Christianity, there is only one God and who is reachable only through his son Jesus Christ. The two religions also show a significant difference when it comes to the issue of women in the faith and culture as well.

According to Usbek in Letter 24, women in Paris are not served by any eunuchs unlike in Ispahan. In Paris, women are accorded more independence clearly shown with the way they walk around freely with their naked faces showing. Usbek indicates that they have “Brute-like independence” (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773. Pg 33). Usbek continues to argue that even though women are freer and more independent here in Paris and can even flirt with other men despite being married, they are never unfaithful to their husbands (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773. Note that in Letter 24, Usbek is addressing his wife who he indicates that he had raped early in their marriage prompting the wife to hate him so much to appoint of wanting to kill him with a dagger.

He is writing to her to make it known to her that women are held in high regard in Seraglio and are protected from evil by their husband through assigning the wives eunuchs who are castrated males and requiring them to have their faces covered. In Paris however, this is not the case since they go out alone and uncovered (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773. Pg. The writer is trying to indicate that Persian culture is indeed superior to that of Paris in that it knows how to protect its women from the evil eye. He describes the differences noted between the two in details and his conclusion, he seeks to indicate that Christian cites like Paris, Livorno in Italy among others present something to be laughed at by Muslims upon arriving in Livorno Usbek write back to his friend Ibben indicating, “a Christian city presents a wonderful spectacle to a Muslim” (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773.

pg. This suggests that indeed the Christian cities in Europe would only be laughed at by Muslims upon arrival due to how confused they appear (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773. pg. More so, the reason why Usbek is writing to his wife Roxana who is living in Persian is to show her how confused and challenging life is in Paris which would surely make her feel running away if she was to be allowed to go and live in Paris. This argument is further in Letter 36 where Rica tries to explain to Ibben on the advantages and disadvantage of offering women more freedom in the view of the European and that of Persians (de Secondat Montesquieu, 1773. Pg. In this section, one can see what culture the author seem inclined towards which is the Islamic culture.