Gender and sexuality

Compared to its contemporaries in the Middle Ages, Islamic society significantly promoted equality between the sexes and improved the social status and rights of women. Yet, judged from the perspective of modern conceptions of women's rights, some of the practices associated with Islam in the Middle Ages may appear discriminatory, owing to continually changing conceptions about women's identity and role in society and family. Islam emerged in a patriarchal society where fathers felt deeply ashamed for having a female child, often culminating in the common practice of pre-Islamic Arabia of burying her alive. There was no limit to the number of wives a man could have. Suppression of women and inequality between the sexes were apparent in all types of interaction.