ABSTRACT
In the heat of these modern-day debates the following factors are often forgotten. However, they are worth bearing in mind while addressing the status of women in Islamic societies.
a. Qur’an and hadíth statements concerning women, which constitute the normative foundation for the subsequent codification of their status in Islamic societies, reflect the predominantly male-centered ethos of not just the relatively primitive Arabian society of Late Antiquity,3 but also that of the neighboring (arguably, more culturally and socially advanced) societies of the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires.
