The Submissive Role Of Women In Women, By Leila Ahmed

Throughout the first chapters of her analysis, Leila Ahmed repeatedly tries to emphasize the fact that the submissive character of females in the society was a result of centuries of changes, embedded into the civilizations as a consequence of general development. What I find particularly interesting, however, is the social perspective of a highly limited group, prostitutes, which, as I noticed, provide usual insight into the matter. One of the claims of Ahmed is that along with the gradual increase of importance of labor power, women’s sexuality became a form of commodity, a tool for competing communities.1 What is briefly noted, however, is that despite the submissive character of female position, the sexuality could be used by women as
Hetairai did have their less educated equivalent of pornai, more commonly known version of a prostitute7. Still, the sole possibility of evolution in such ‘un-respectable’ group confirms the strong determination of the community, actually growing over the centuries – in the following Byzantine Empire, one of the main inspirations for the ideas of the Islam, one of the most influential empresses was Theodora, a prostitute8. Therefore, in hindsight of centuries to follow, this incomparable battle for social position may serve as a possible explanation for repetitive presence of equality of sexes among ideals of the newly arising religions, namely both Christianity and Islam. On the basis of this extreme example of prostitutes, one could argue that women communities were drawn to every opportunity of gaining equality, at most extreme of prices. At the same time, it correspondingly explains why the ideals did not caught up with the reality – the fight was won by the individuals, but the pressure of the historical and social norms did not allow for further