lesbianganondorf:

So apparently a lot of people don’t actually know about this, and I thought it would be helpful to share what little knowledge I have on this subject.

The harem, contrary to the depiction of Western media, was not actually a naked Paradise of scantily clad brown women lounging over fountains. Not to say that rulers didn’t take multiple wives or concubines, but the exaggeration of European travelers is laughable (especially considering that these travelers were all men and thus barred from even entering the harem in the first place, their sources were apparently local gossip and their own wild imaginations). The “thousands of sultry-eyed virgins for the man’s pleasure” actually consisted of all the man’s relatives, as in his wives, his sisters, his mother, his aunts, and even young children, as well as servants and eunuchs.

The harem is often depicted as being some sort of getaway for kings to fulfill their sexual desires, but it was really just separate quarters for women to do their regular, daily activities.

Take this, for example, when one European traveler accidentally gets a glimpse of the harem and is disappointed to find out that all the women behind the curtain are not provocatively dressed and are busy doing their daily chores.

“Fryer, who was official surgeon of the East India Company, went inside the harem to see an ailing lady. As was the normal routine, he was to feel the pulse of the patient from behind a curtain. But the curtain accidentally fell down. Fryer described the incident as if the door of an animal cage stood opened. He discovered “the whole Bevy, fluttering like so many Birds when a Net is cast over them; yet none of them sought to escape.” He found them altogether busy in “good Houswifery such as “Needlework” or making “confection” or “Achars” [Pickles] with “no indecent decorum in managing their Cloystered way of living.” 93 It was a great opportunity for Fryer to directly observe the women of the harem and their living conditions. However, what he was able to see was that the women were employed in just normal routine household work. It was a disappointment for Fryer and his readers who expected a place of debauchery which was a stereo-typed image of harem, popular in the west.”  Source 

Here are some more things to read, if you’re interested:

This is the same source as above and also has accounts from two women who actually lived in the harem.

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1073647.files/Unit%205/Lal_Historicizing%20the%20Harem%20-%20The%20Challenge%20of%20a%20Princess%20s%20Memoir%20-%202004.pdf

http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=his

Also, anyone more knowledgeable than me, feel free to add or correct anything I’ve written.