What's a Harem?

Question

I saw it in a game and i wasn't sure what it meant. help ppls

Answer 1

The word HARAM is known to every Muslim still alive. Something is either HALAL (permitted) or haram (forbidden). Harim or Harem refers to the section of the home set aside for women only. The word harem also refers to the extended household and may or may not refer to a polygamous household. Ruling-class harems, however, are usually polygamous and contain several servants and slaves in addition to close relatives. Males unrelated to the household are forbidden. This is done to protect women and family honour.

In Middle Eastern Muslim societies where sexual segregation is practiced, women form their closest bonds in the harem. They are relatives, friends, or neighbors and spend much time visiting the secluded section of each other's homes. The streets in the traditional Arab-Muslim city are for the men. ..

The veiling and seclusion of women is ancient in the Middle East and predates Islam. It can be traced back to biblical times when men and women lived separate lives within the camps. It became more widely used with the rise of classes, cities, and states. The wives of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were secluded, yet played important public roles during and after his life.

Important family-related decisions are made informally within the harem. The women will often arrange marriages first before the men do the negotiations. Within the harem, it would be determined whether a young woman is interested in and consents to a suggested marriage before any public announcement would occur.

Sexuality and reproduction were only one aspect of harem life in the Muslim East. Some Ottoman sultans displayed an insatiable appetite for women, but the imperial harem had rigid rules of conduct that even sultans had to obey. There was a “queen mother” who set the rules and was very powerful. She chose the women for her sons. She trained the women. The harem was guarded but black eunuchs who worked closely with the queens. These women could be used to control a sultan, or be married out to highly placed officials where they could subtly serve the sultan and the queen in other capacities.

Any woman who could bear a son to the sultan she moved up in the harem with a shot at becoming queen if her son inherited the throne. There was a “one concubine one son” rule to avoid power grabs
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Today things have changed. Polygamy in Islam is dying out which is a shame. I speak as a Muslim woman. The harem was a place for all women. It is a system of protection for women. A woman could be married because she is widowed and needs help, or is older and unprotected. Not all wives were married for sex. Men in Islam, the wiser ones, and there are many, can bring in women for any variety of reasons. Now, with so many widows, so many horrors in the Middle East, millions of women have no protectors. The men are dying and the culture being broken up.

With the polygamous lifestyle, men did not roam for sexual satisfaction. This way, many women shared but fewer were left with nothing. Now, with this new emphasis on pair marriages, not only are women being neglected and abandoned due to war, to survive, they are turning to prostitution and disease, formerly negligible in the Middle East is rising at a rapid rate.

The harem was/is an honourable and ancient way of life. Read the Book “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamante for a fine introduction into harem life as it really was.

Answer 2

In countries where men are allowed multiple wives (as in several dozen), a harem is a place where the women are kept to guard them from other men and have them "available" for the husbands use.

Answer 3

A harem is where a sheik or a king / emperor would keep his many wives in countries where more than one is allowed.

Answer 4

>living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a Muslim household

>In traditional Arab culture, the harîm حريم (cf. haram) is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers. In English, this term refers collectively to the wives in a polygynous household as well as the "no-males allowed" area. Another English definition for this term that is more modern in its usage is that of a number of women followers or admirers

Answer 5

here is a link to the definition

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/harem