Veils and harems must be traced back to Persian and Byzantine influences during the time of the 'Abbasid caliphs, especially during the regency of the narrow-minded al-Qadir. "What had started so harmlessly as a fashion became religious compulsion under their gloomy influence. And seclusion in the harem which, in the Persian manner, was carried out with the help of eunuchs in accordance with the traditional Byzantine custom, and which started as the elegant fashion of the distinguished, the rich and the indulgent, took on daemonic proportions under the 'stay-at-home' appeal addressed by the Prophet to his own wives and led to the compulsory banishment of women and the exclusion of anything feminine from public life." From then on the theologians decided that even the female face should be considered as one of the forbidden attractions. And thus even today the wearing of the veil and confinement are still customary in large circles in the Islamic world, especially in cities. The Bedouin woman never wore the veil nor did she ever live in the seclusion of the harem. "Economical and practical reasons would never have allowed the simple inhabitants of the steppes and desert such luxury, any more than they would have made possible the luxury of marrying four wives as allowed by the Prophet... And this is why the Bedouin woman of the first Islamic centuries is even freer, more independent and influential than the very respected, distinguished women of the highest court circles of Damascus." The suppression of the Islamic woman is therefore not rooted in the law of the Prophet. It is a manifestation of corruption and decadence for which Muhammad cannot be held responsible. (171:1)

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