Assura Research Paper

The Code of Assura is full of regulations for the people of Assyria. Rules focusing on marriages and interactions between men and women are the main theme, but the one thing that stands out are the rules and punishments specifically made for women. Though some of the punishments are the same, there is more of a magnification on the women. Due to this code’s directness towards the actions of women, it is a start into reconstructing their lives or at least their expected lives for that time. During this time period, this code, at least for the women, had to be strictly followed. This was their guidelines and from how they spoke to their family to what they wore, this code was their way of life. One of the first codes describes how women, whether wife or daughter, should only speak in an uplifting way instead of lowly towards their
There is also a rule on which women are to be veiled and which are not, and the punishment for those who where a veil when not allowed is harsh ( I.40). So, married women and daughters were seen as something to be covered from other men when out. Meanwhile, the rest of the code from the excerpt are more specific to a woman’s behavior when a man is involved, some more so in cases of sexual encounters. There is a rule against women damaging a man’s testicle or faced harsh punishment, while one also for men if they hit a woman to a point she miscarries which shows some women suffered from miscarriages at the hands of men (I.8, I. 21). As far as sex life, it is understood that women were not allowed to have sex outside of marriage or faced being put to death by their husbands while if raped they were protected by law (I.12, I.15). Based of the Code, it is also known that widows and divorcees may not be left anything by their husbands, and as far as