Did Assyrian women have rights

Rights are a modern concept that comes from the Enlightenment and assert that each person deserves a certain better type of treatment because of their very humanity and no one can take this away. If the Assyrian women had anything, they would have permissions which are the King’s choice of how a person deserves to be treated.

We have discovered marriage contracts from older Assyrian periods that gave equal rights of petition (for grievances and divorce) to both the male and the female. However, under King Tiglath-Pileser, there was a tablet defining the marriage laws shows that the social position of women in Assyria was lower than in Babylonia or among the Hittites. A man was allowed to send away his wife at his own pleasure with or without divorce money. In the case of adultery, he was permitted to kill or maim her. Outside her house the woman was forced to observe many restrictions, such as the wearing of a veil. The women of the king’s harem were subject to severe punishment, including beating, maiming, and death, along with those who guarded and looked after them.