Re: ...but the 'harem' concept is a western thing....it's the Islamic fed misogyny they hate.
In the royal citidel of Susa, capital of the Medo-Persian Empire, almost ONE THOUSAND YEARS before Mohammed was born, there was a famous story involving a queen, a drinking party, a striptease request gone wrong, an angered harem, a divorce, a sorting of a queen through shagging concubines, a setting of the concubines into a newly formed harem, finding another queen, then setting about to shag some more virgins for a second harem...
"...Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women in the royal palace which belonged to Xeres I. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded...to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown (scholars say that the king commanded that she come before the men wearing ONLY a crown) , in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold. But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command...therefore the king was furious, and his anger burned within him...and Memucan answered before the king and the princes: 'Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the prices, and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Xerxes I. For the queens behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes...this very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the king's officials that they heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath....let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she...let beautiful virgins be sought for the king...'
"...many young women were gathered at Shushan (Susa) the citadel, under the custody of Heghai, that Esther also was taken to the king's palace, into the care of Hegai the custodian of women...so Esther was taken to King Xerxes I, into his royal palace...In the morning she returned to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who kept the concubines...the king loved (sexual intercourse) Esther more than all the other women...so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants (with the same old Persian drinking binges)...
"...when virgins were gathered together A SECOND TIME, Mordecai sat within the king's gate..." Esther 1:9 to 2:19
All I can say is OY VEY!
She's who I was named for...
Though I really, REALLY feel for the first Queen (I'm sure Vashti and Esther sat down later and said "For HIM I shaved my legs!?!?")
Seriously,
My favorite experiences have been in the 'harem'....it's nothing like the myth.
"almost ONE THOUSAND YEARS before Mohammed was born, there was a famous story involving a queen, a drinking party, a striptease request gone wrong, an angered harem, a "divorce""
Divorce? Vashti was hanged.