76 



The RnviEvv of Reviews. 



WOMEN IN PERSIA. 



In the French reviews there are two articles on 

 Women in Persia. M. Henry R. d'AUemagne, who has 

 recently visited Persia, has published a report of his 

 mission, and in the Correspondant of May lo the 

 portion relating to women is made the subject of an 

 article by M. Michel Amblairs. In the May number of 

 Je Sell's Tout appear extracts from the report. 



THE GIRL CHILD OF LITTLE VALUE. 



The birth of a girl in Persia is received with pitv, 

 even by her mother. " Why should I not weep over 

 my little girl who will have to endure the same miseries 

 as I have known ? " she cries. " She is of so little 

 value ! Who knows whether her father will not one 

 day throw her out of window and so silence for ever her 

 wailing ? .\nd why should he be annoyed ? He knows 

 he may do such a thing with impunity. No one cares 

 any more than if it was a cat which had to suffer for 

 his wrath." 



INFANT MORT.\LITY. 



From the hour of birth the social inequality between 

 the sexes asserts 'itself. Infant mortality is very high 

 owing to the ignorance and inexperience of the women. 

 -Since celibacy is considered a disgrace, girls are often 

 married as young as ten or twelve. In order to reduce 



the rate of infant mortality some raeii have suggested 

 that the mother should have a finger cut of! every time 

 she lost a child. This cruelty, however, has not been 

 adopted. But that it should have entered into the 

 minds of any Persian men is significant enough. 



HOW WOMEN PASS THE TIME. 



The education of girls is very limited, the majoritv 

 being unable to read or write. Nevertheless, schools and 

 even universities have been founded in the larger cities, 

 but it is only in quite recent years and in very excep- 

 tional circuimstances that any women have been 

 admitted to them. The better-to-do women devote 

 their time to such things as dress, music, eating, 

 smoking, etc., and, in addition, ahvays endeavour to 

 satisfy the wishes of father or husband. Much more 

 variety comes into the li\-es of the poorer women who 

 work outside the home — in occupations decided upon 

 by the husbands. Not only to her husband does a wife 

 owe obedience. During the first year of her married 

 life «he is entirely under the control of her mother-in- 

 law, and not until her first child is born is she allowed 

 to make a single purchase in a shop. 



THE MARRIAGE L.\WS AND PROPERTY. 



Vet with this semi-slavery the Persian wife remains 

 the exclusive and independent owner of her own 

 fortune, and she may administer it as she likes. \\'hen 

 the husband dies, the wife, if there are no children, 

 inherits one-fourth of his fortune and one-eighth if 

 there are children. The remainder goes to the children, 

 the share of the sons being double that of the girls. On 

 the other hand, if the wife dies first, the husband 

 inherits one-half of her fortune if there are no children, 

 and one-fourth if there are children. In case of divorce, 

 the wife takes away not only everything that she had 

 brought with her, but also the dot promised her by her 

 husband at the time o; their marriage, and all the 

 presents received on the occasion. 



From tlu '* Citing H'l-i Pita," Prying.] 



The Tables Turned. 



A Cliincsc Ciriciturt- of llic Woman's .Suffrage Movement. 



[Note the wife sitting down and the husband carrying hot 



water for her.] 



EDUCATION IN INDIA. 



.Mr. S. S. Thorbi-rn contributes to the Imperial and 

 Asiatic Quarterly Reviejv a paper on peasant scholar- 

 ships versus patchwork compulsory education for 

 India, a criticism of Mr. Gokhale's measure. Some 

 facts that he advances are of special interest : — 



India's population is sevenfold and her area twentv-five fold 

 i;ieatei than ours, yet her revenue is not nearly half of ours. 

 With us boys and girls over six years of age are under compul- 

 sory instruction, number 5,000,000, and cost annually about ^4 

 a he.ail. In India, out of 19,000,000 boys of school-going a^e. 

 4.0 0,000 attend elementary schools, and the c.xpeiuiitu're "on 

 tliem is 5s. 6d. a heacl. The cost per head of population falls 

 at Id. in India, against los. in England. 



To teach usefully 20,000.000 of hoys and a like 

 nuinlicr of girls to read, write, and cipher would eat 

 up more than half of the imperial and provincial 

 revenues of India. Mr. Thorburn considers that our root 

 error has been to think that the business mind which 

 actuates urbans, outside the low and no-caste classes, 

 is inherent in all Indians. 



