Note 2 — Chapter III · THE HAREM AND WOMEN IN THE EAST.
Reading edition
If the detractors of Islam would take the trouble to find out what is the exact position of women under Mohammedan law, they might feel ashamed of their contention that she is treated like a slave. Laws protecting the rights of women were promulgated under Islam when no such laws existed in Europe. As far back as five hundred years ago women in Turkey had begun to dispute men's superiority openly. As proof of this I will quote a few lines of the poetess Mihri, who lived in the last half of the fifteenth century:—
"Since they cry that woman lacketh wit alway, Need must they excuse whatever word she say. Better far one female, if she worthy be, Than a thousand males, if all unworthy they."