page_title: Women's rights
section_title: Mesopotamia
hierarchical_section_title: Women's rights / History / Ancient history / Mesopotamia
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Disque d'Enheduanna. Albâtre, v. 2350-2300 av. J.-C. Ur. Diamètre&#160;: 25.6 cm, épaisseur&#160;: 7.1 cm. Description du bas-relief&#160;: scène rituelle, un prêtre fait une libation devant un autel à quatre étages (à gauche), accompagné de trois personnes, dont la prêtresse Enheduanna en posture de prière (troisième personne en venant de la droite).
context_page_description: Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide, and they formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movement during the 20th century. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys.
  Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include the right to bodily integrity and autonomy, to be free from sexual violence, to vote, to hold public office, to enter into legal contracts, to have equal rights in family law, to work, to fair wages or equal pay, to have reproductive rights, to own property, and to education.
context_section_description: Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell, and inherit property. They could engage in commerce and testify in court as witnesses. Nonetheless, their husbands could divorce them for mild infractions, and a divorced husband could easily remarry another woman, provided that his first wife had borne him no offspring. Female deities, such as Inanna, were widely worshipped. The Akkadian poetess Enheduanna, the priestess of Inanna and daughter of Sargon, is the earliest known poet whose name has been recorded. Old Babylonian law codes permitted a husband to divorce his wife under any circumstances, but doing so required him to return all of her property and sometimes pay her a fine. Most law codes forbade a woman to request her husband for a divorce and enforced the same penalties on a woman asking for divorce as on a woman caught in the act of adultery. Some Babylonian and Assyrian laws, however, afforded women the same right to divorce as men, requiring them to pay exactly the same fine. The majority of East Semitic deities were male.
caption: Ancient Sumerian bas-relief portrait depicting the poetess Enheduanna
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 6.3.9600.17418", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D7100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Windows Photo Editor 6.3.9600.17418", "Image DateTime": "2016:07:07 19:21:16", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2486", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "45202", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/10", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:10:22 12:20:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:10:22 12:20:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "45164", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4160"}