An old woman once desired Mohammed to intercede with God that she might
be admitted to Paradise, and he told her that no old woman would enter
that place. She burst into loud weeping, when he explained himself by
saying that God would then make her young again.

I was once a fellow-passenger in the Damascus diligence, with a
Mohammedan pilgrim going to Mecca by way of Beirût and Egypt, in company
with his wife. I asked him whether his wife would have any place in
Paradise when he received his quota of seventy-two Houris. "Yes," said
he, looking towards his wife, whose veil prevented our seeing her,
although she could see us, "if she obeys me in all respects, and is a
faithful wife, and goes to Mecca, she will be made more beautiful than
all the Houris of Paradise." Paradise is thus held up to the women as
the reward of obedience to their husbands, and this is about the sum and
substance of what the majority of Moslem women know about religion.

Women are never admitted to pray with men in public, being obliged to
perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the Mosques, it must
be at a time when the men are not there, for the Moslems are of opinion
that the presence of women inspires a different kind of devotion from
that which is desirable in a place set apart for the worship of God.

The Moslem idea of woman is vile and degraded. A Moslem absent from home
never addresses a letter to his wife, but to his son or brother, or some
male relative. It is considered a grievous insult to ask a Moslem about
the health of his wife. If obliged to allude to a woman in conversation,
you must use the word "ajellak Allah," "May God elevate you" above the
contamination of this subject! You would be expected to use the same
expression in referring to a donkey, a dog, a shoe, a swine or anything
vile. It is somewhat like the Irish expression, "Saving your presence,