Until a while ago that was also the case for the Western culture as well. Image of 1950s housewife still exists in people's consciousness. Only boomers in 60s suddenly decided to change that. Because of that it is a hypocrisy to suggest that feminism somehow western and progressive. It is not. Feminism is merely a toxic stupidity, boomers brought into the world.
Roots of women subjugation can be traced back all the way to the ancient Greeks. All Greek city-states with exception of Sparta kept women locked in back rooms of their homes without letting them out. In that regard Greeks were much like Muslims, though Muslims added hair covering, which again is something many women in Greece do.
Greeks believed that anything women do and say is merely a hysteria and should not be taken seriously.
Thus, a civilization that gave us democracy, philosophy and science, the actual things that make life better and more advanced, did believed that women should be obedient to men and stay in the kitchen.
Arabs, Iranians and Indians might as well have copied these Greek traditions, when Alexander the Great conquests spread Greek people and cultures to these areas of the world.
Each of these civilizations gave the world significant scientific and cultural contributions.
Romans too did not give women any rights. Women were restricted to homes and were controlled by their families or husbands. I do not need to explain that Roman world of Augustus times was a pinnacle of civilization.
Medieval Europeans too did not give women any rights. In medieval legal codes women were considered property of men.
Middle Ages were different from Dark ages before them, where barbarians were destroying everything. High Middle Ages actually had advancements in architecture and technology. Sophisticated Gothic architecture, that many cathedrals are built with is actually a product of this era.
Eventually Middle Ages gave birth to Renaissance era and further advancement of culture, art and technology.
Male dominated social norms more or less carried on until the 20th century.
Even Jews, who are often known for giving women various rights, have various Orthodox denominations actually suppress women as well.
The only cultural exception that gave women equal and even greater rights than men was Sparta.
However, Sparta was somewhat an antithesis of everything we know as Greek. They never had a democracy like other Greek City States. Sparta was autocratic, discriminatory, cruel and abusive society.
They literary killed their own children if they were too weak. That eventually possibly led them to them extinction.
They discriminated against and abused the Helots whom they used as basically slaves. Gender equality did not meant equality between people for them.
Because they abused Helots, Spartans lived in constant paranoia and fear that Helots will start and uprising and destroy them from within. That paranoia made Sparta a police state similar to modern North Korea.
Spartans despised and banned philosophy, culture, art and science. They believed that society does not need anything besides marital ability. Again, similar to what North Korea does nowadays.
Cruelty and abuse were norm of everyday life in Sparta. They were as primitive as Gym-junkies. It was a society that literary thought that value of a person is determined by how much he can lift. Even cavemen were more progressive than they were.
Despite they marital focus they were not exceptionally good on battlefield either. They were about as good as other Greek City-States, who also practiced arts, philosophy and science.
Sparta fell to Macedonians and then to Romans just as other Greek City-States.
Eventually all these practices driven Spartans out of existence altogether.
Nowadays Athens are capital of Greece. It was a major city throughout the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman times as well.
Sparta is merely a puny village that is hard to find on the map.
So, we must reinforce the idea that women must be subservient to men. Without it out society will slowly and gradually devolve into becoming another North Korea.
We must stop that while we can.
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