Having mentioned the rights women had under the law Fay is quick to admit that historians are not certain as to "the extend to which women were able to exercise these rights" (32). Fatma Muge Gocek / Mark David Baer -- Women's Social Boundaries (background) Gocek and Baer argue that much of the historic literature on the experiences women had in the 18th Century Ottoman Empire -- at least the literature that has survived -- "is highly selective" and tends to be a "disadvantage to women" (Gocek, et al
Additional research needs to be done to more fully understand the "social boundaries of the women's experience" based on registers such as inheritance registers, Gocek continues (54). Dina Rizk Khoury -- Moral and Spatial Boundaries -- Including Prostitution Khoury explains that the lower class and middle class women in 19th Century Ottoman society had more flexibility to leave the house; she could have her "slippers ready at the door" and use "public spaces" to go to the market, the quarter, and elsewhere (Khoury, 1997, 114)
The city represents "medieval Arab architectural styles that are rare and authentic, in traditional human habitats," the UNESCO article explains. Author Semerdjian begins chapter four ("Prostitutes, Soldiers, and the People") by explaining that "Private dwellings sometimes functioned as sites of sexual and moral vice" (Semerdjian, 2008, 94)
From one point-of-view in this particular aspect of the story women in 18th Century Ottoman society were misunderstood and misrepresented, albeit there are ample secondary sources that will be referenced in this paper that show women were indeed engaged in vice and pleasure to a significant extent. van Nieuwkerk -- Women of Enchantment & Women Smokers & Drinkers Essayist Karin van Nieuwkerk writes that eighteenth century Egyptian female performers ("savantes") were required to have a "beautiful voice, a good possession of the language, a knowledge of the rules of poetry" (van Nieuwkerk, 1998, 21)
18th Century Istanbul Punishment for Prostitutes -- Fariba Zarinebaf Author Fariba Zarinebaf narrative points to the fact that unlike in Cairo, prostitution and public dancing without veils was not tolerated in Istanbul in the 18th Century. When it came to prostitution, police officers frequently made "arbitrary arrests and convictions without trials" in Istanbul, Zarinebaf writes (Zarinebaf, 2011, 107)
And given the hard line that Islamic authorities reportedly took against prostitution in Istanbul -- juxtaposed with far less severe crackdowns in Egypt -- it is not inconceivable that harsh measure could have been taken against prostitutes in Istanbul. European Reaction to Harems and Concubines in Ottoman Empire Noted Islamic historian Dror Ze'evi has critiqued the writings of European travelers to the Ottoman Empire in the 18th Century, and Ze'evi explains that "Stories of harems, odalisques, eunuchs, and sodomy seemed bizarre and intriguing" to those visitors (Ze'evi, 2009, 522)
Thus Ottoman policies ultimately led Iraq into the hands of the British and the British did little to address the underlying issues in Iraq. For example, in 1920 there was a "large-scale Shiite insurgency" meaning that the Shiite and Sunni religious problems existed and would exist through the 20th century and they do exist today in the 21st century (Rayburn 2006)
S. led invasion, "without a strongman holding Iraq together, rising sectarian violence has brought the country to the brink of civil war" (Roberts 2007)
Iraq faced incredible political dilemmas and religious differences that were not addressed in the years following Ottoman rule as colonization re-enforced as the British only pursued their own personal interests in Iraq and, like in the Ottoman years, Iraq was merely a pawn in the much bigger political and economic landscape and its own political and religious concerns were not addressed. According to one study on Iraq, modern day Iraq "as a result of repeatedly being conquered and occupied by foreign powers, did not progress in the four centuries" since the original Ottoman invasion (Shagoury 2003)