Islam’s misogynistic practices were inherited from conquered Christian and Jewish society

Evidence

As Islam spread, it adopted the cultural practices of various empires, including those of the neighboring Persian and Byzantine empires. The Christians who populated the Middle East and the Mediterranean had more rigid customs associated with women. In the Christian Byzantine Empire, the sexes were segregated. Women were not to be seen in public, were veiled, and were given only rudimentary education. As the expanding Islamic empire incorporated these regions, it also assimilated these cultural and social practices. In other words, the particular misogynistic practices that Islam came to adopt were largely inherited from the Christian and Jewish religious customs of the neighboring societies Muslims conquered. The significant point here is that sexist attitudes toward women, far from being unique to Islam, were prevalent among Christians and Jews as well. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 172

Categorization

• DEFINE: Supplies the historical mechanism — cultural assimilation during conquest — that reframes the origin of Islamic veiling and segregation.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 172
• XREF: connects to: Patriarchy in Islam parallels a comparable history within Western Christianity. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 308; The oppressed-Muslim-woman trope emerged in 18th-19th century Europe, not earlier; Jews and Muslims occupied a shared proximity-distancing position in Christian self-definition (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Islam’s restrictive women’s customs were inherited from conquered Christian and Jewish societies. #expands (0.95)
• Islamic veiling and sex segregation were borrowed from Byzantine Christian customs #exemplifies (0.90)
• Jews and Muslims occupied a shared proximity-distancing position in Christian self-definition #expands (0.40)