Writers and thinkers of the Enlightenment age, sharply, argued issues about women’s rights. Issues like her “natural rights” and liberation from the familial control were discussed. In his novel “Persians Letters” 1721, Montesquieu contradicted the eighteenth century, prominent gender view, which stated that women should only do domestic duties in their home and they should be confined in it, through criticizing the institution of the harem, which holds the same requirement of confinement. One of those thinkers who supported and reinforced such a view was Jean-Jacque Rousseau, who in his books and novels, such as Emile or On Education (1762) which he considered it to be "best and most important of all my writings"[1] , stressed the point that
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Through his novel, he stated that for any successful relationship, the consent of the individuals involved in it is necessary, and any system, which estranges any of its individuals, is fragile. Usbek's harem represents a fragile sexual, political and social system, because it estranges its women from their true selves. For Montesquieu, the harem is a repressive place for women, “whose- veils, curtained litters, and seclusion are symbols of an unnatural alienation; it creates an entire set of mutilated, frustrated men, the eunuch-guards (Letter 34)”(mohja)( say the scene of humilating the eunch by nournhar(sarcasm) so does it an alination) As a result of their estrangement in the harem, Usbek’s women took the chance of his absence, and revolted against him. Usbek lost his control over his world: strange men were found climbing over the wall of his house or hidden within it, Zelis took off her veil in the mosque, Roxane's –his beloved wife - adultery was revealed. In the last letter in the collection, Roxana wrote, after she had poisoned herself, and killed the guards who killed her lover: “I have reformed your laws by those of nature." Through this action, she reformed and restored her true self. Persian Letters is "the first manifesto to radical individualism (Berman,
Through his novel, he stated that for any successful relationship, the consent of the individuals involved in it is necessary, and any system, which estranges any of its individuals, is fragile. Usbek's harem represents a fragile sexual, political and social system, because it estranges its women from their true selves. For Montesquieu, the harem is a repressive place for women, “whose- veils, curtained litters, and seclusion are symbols of an unnatural alienation; it creates an entire set of mutilated, frustrated men, the eunuch-guards (Letter 34)”(mohja)( say the scene of humilating the eunch by nournhar(sarcasm) so does it an alination) As a result of their estrangement in the harem, Usbek’s women took the chance of his absence, and revolted against him. Usbek lost his control over his world: strange men were found climbing over the wall of his house or hidden within it, Zelis took off her veil in the mosque, Roxane's –his beloved wife - adultery was revealed. In the last letter in the collection, Roxana wrote, after she had poisoned herself, and killed the guards who killed her lover: “I have reformed your laws by those of nature." Through this action, she reformed and restored her true self. Persian Letters is "the first manifesto to radical individualism (Berman,