DBQ Women in Ottoman

The Ottoman was one of the strongest empires to ever exist, covering over five million square kilometers and lasting over an astounding six hundred years. One of the key features to its success was claimed to be how it treated its citizens with respect and bestowed upon them the rights they deserved. This could be true, perhaps, if you were only speaking of the male demographic. The roles of women in Ottoman society were prolonged in development and somewhat convoluted throughout the duration of the Ottoman Empire.
In short, and undeniably, women were considered subordinate to men in all aspects of society. Their oppression in society was justified through religious means. The Qur’an states that it was the duty of man to own, maintain, and protect women due to their superior strength. It described it the responsibility of man to keep women obedient, encouraging them to admonish, refuse their bed, and even beat women until they accepted their place; subordinate to man (Doc 2). The Ottoman Empire took no strain to become and maintain a man-driven society, enforcing this ideal vicariously. In a poem composed to console a mother of her dead daughter, they implore her to feel grateful that it was the life of a female that had been lost, rather than a son (Doc 1). The system of power that so proudly proclaimed to be based on merit and allowed any citizen to rise through the ranks so long as they had skill offered none of these righteous freedoms to any women (Doc 5).
However, women did have once foothold in society and that is because they were cherished, even venerated by man. A prime example of this would be the tale of Roxelana (Doc 6), who was the wife of Süleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. At one time a slave, the affections of the great Sultan were unreservedly in her power, as he adhered to her in a most worshipful poem, “My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan” (Doc 7) Even the most powerful man in the Empire was powerless