1982, 72, 75, Berberian 2000, 75). The marriage of
prepubescent girls in Anatolia was not unheard of
as the “more physically or politically insecure the
villagers felt, the younger the age of marriage”
(Villa and Matossian 1982, 73). This is despite the
prohibition of marriage before maturity (Thomson
2000, 238). The new bride, whose mouth was cov-
ered, could not speak or eat in the presence of her
husband’s family. She could speak only to and
through children. The rule against speaking was
often relaxed after the first child was born, but even
then she spoke only when spoken to (Villa and
Matossian 1982, 92, Wallis 1923, 582–3). Women’s
dress and behavior, including segregation during
mealtimes and church services, remained basically
unchanged in the rural Iranian-Armenian commu-
nities until the mid-twentieth century although here,
as with other aspects of women’s lives, regional and
even familial variations existed (Berberian 2000,
75, Villa and Matossian 1982, 93–5).
The importance placed on the virginity of the
bride is evidenced in certain regions of Anatolia by
the ritual of the showing of the bloody sheet from
the marriage bed as well as the prohibitions against
slandering women with accusations of non-virgin-
ity and the punishment for rape in the form of a fine
paid to the father or the forced marriage of the
rapist to the victim, if acceptable to the victim’s
family. All this, of course, reaffirms the patriarchal
system and the belief that women are custodians
of family honor (Villa and Matossian 1982, 85,
Thomson 2000, 145, Berberian 2000, 87).
Thus women did not merely physically repro-
duce their children, but as mothers who were the
major influence in the lives of their children, they
were also the socializers of children, reproducing
the culture through dress, behavior, and use of lan-
guage as well as culinary and other customs
(Berberian 2000, 75).Women’s activities
In terms of family standing, the wife of the senior
male was the matriarch (Villa and Matossian 1982,
27). In addition to the chores related to household
maintenance and food preparation, women were
also involved in the textile arts and crafts, combing,
spinning wool, linen, flax, cotton, and making tex-
tiles, carpets, lace, embroideries (Villa and Matos-
sian 1982, 71, Kasparian 1983, 25). Women were
taught embroidery and needlelace in church schools,
convents, and monasteries as well as in workshops
and homes, starting as early as age 5, beginning to
master techniques at 10, and learning to spin the
wheel and loom by 15 (Kasparian 1983, 27, Sharam-12 armenian women
beyan 2001, 165, A. Poghosyan 2001, 156, Villa
and Matossian 1982, 117). These skills provided
them with a form of subsistence in economically
difficult times and a voice: “needlework was one of
the few forms of self-expression open to a woman
in a society where she was largely without rights or
prestige. A woman’s skill and virtuosity in the fab-
ric arts stood in direct opposition to her traditional
role in the society, which demanded constraint and
humility” (Sharambeyan 2001, 165). Some Armenian
women in Iranian Azerbaijan also participated and
controlled the wine trade, largely because alcohol
could not be sold openly, thus making the home the
site of transaction (Berberian 2000, 74).Women’s education
Girls’ duties began to differentiate from those of
boys at about age seven as girls began to take on
household chores and later care for younger siblings
(Villa and Matossian 1982, 117). For the twentieth
century, indications are that certain things remained
unchanged (Wallis 1923, 582–4). Differences in
rights, responsibilities, and expectations between
the genders continued throughout life as evidenced
by inheritance customs, according to which although
in principle unmarried daughters were required to
receive the same share as sons, in reality they often
received half that share (Thomson 2000, 182, 183,
Villa and Matossian 1982, 28). Variations, of course,
existed and they were due not only to regional and
cultural distinctions but also to family belief sys-
tems deeply affected by education and contact with
Westernizing elements such as missionaries.Missionaries
American missionaries were first to offer second-
ary education to women in the Ottoman Empire by
the establishment of a secondary school in 1845 in
Istanbul with the primary goal of training teachers,
although graduates were more likely to marry than
choose a teaching career. The first girls’ school in
Iran was established in 1838. Communities were at
first reluctant to accept or objected outright to sin-
gle female teachers. The process of acceptance took
at least a few decades (Merguerian 1990–1, 110,
111, Merguerian 1990, 47). Like their counterparts
in Iran, missionary girls’ schools in the Ottoman
Empire, beginning with Istanbul but then spreading
to other areas like Aintab a couple of decades later,
provided instruction in modern vernacular Arme-
nian, reading with the Bible as the main text, writing,
hygiene, housekeeping, and sewing (Merguerian
1990–1, 115, 116, Merguerian 1990, 31, 47, Ber-
berian 2000, 77–84).