Have times really changed?
I found the passage about women in the harem described in Living Islam to be very interesting. The status of woman was so low back then; they were treated worse than an animal. The reading describes how the women lived in tiny little rooms in the harem, bored out of their minds. The only goal of their lives was being “called” by the ruler. The ruler had complete control over them, and if he did not like the way they behaved, he would simply kill them.