womenindispensable to the proper workings of the universe, rendering women
the complementary opposite of males.
The Chinese character for a wife shows a woman with a broom, which
exemplifies her domestic role. Within their natal families, Chinese women
do not have much status because they are destined to join the ranks of
another family at marriage. Women are educated at home in order to pre-
pare them for their future roles as wives and mothers, learning good man-
ners and domestic skills such as sewing and weaving. At the age of fifteen,
a young girl receives a hairpin that marks a coming-of-age ceremony, but
by the age of twenty, she is expected to marry. Once married, a woman’s
duty is to serve her husband, whereas a husband’s duty is to manage his
wife, although married couples are expected to show each other mutual
respect. Couples are expected to restrict their intimacy because too much
familiarity can lead to excessive lust and anger. A proper relationship of a
married couple is based on harmony. An aspect of this harmony obligates
a wife to be responsible for her husband’s moral character by monitoring
and nurturing it. Women are also expected to be chaste not simply with
respect to sexual continence but in a wider sense of integrity and honor.
As in Indian culture, Chinese women are considered sources of pol-
lution for two basic reasons: they emit unclean substances and their
connection with birth and death. The unclean substances are various
types of bodily fluids and substances. Female bodily fluids are associ-
ated with dangerous powers that suggest that menstrual blood, for
instance, creates babies, although semen begins the growth of a child.
A woman’s value and status are enhanced when she gives birth to a
son who represents the generational line of descent and performs the
necessary ancestral rites.
There are many similarities between traditional Chinese religious cul-
ture and formative Muslim religion with respect to the role of women.
According to the Qur’an (4.38), women are to be managed by men,
should be obedient, and can be beaten for rebelliousness. Qur’anic verse
(2.228) also makes it clear that men are superior to women, and they are
the protectors of women (4.34) because this situation is God’s preference
and because men provide support for women. Such scriptural passages
justify the male role as the head of the household, make a male the final
decision maker, render a male the spiritual authority of his wife and fam-
ily, make women subordinate to men, and consider women incapable and
unfit for public duties. Nonetheless, women are still part of the Muslim
community, and believing women are offered the reward of paradise.
The Qur’an (2.223) also instructs males to consider women fields that
need to be plowed, a passage that suggests that a woman’s value can be
measure by her fruitfulness.