We live in a time when it seems to us that what we call human rights have always existed, that they are something natural and normal. However, mankind has had various historical moments in which rights were a privilege rather than normality. In this context, some questions arise: Where did these rights come from? Who invented them? Who guarantees them? Who has the authority to decide whether or not I should have these rights? In order to answer these questions, I will focus on the human nature and the role of men through history in ensuring human rights.

I will start with the human nature and the way in which the first groups in which the people lived were built. As the humans were guided from the very beginning by instincts and less by rationality, physical power was the main factor in both situations: choosing the decision-making authority and imposing its decisions regardless of people’s individual preferences.

In this way people came through slavery and countless wars of conquest. Once the most physically strong and ruthless man came to lead a group of people, his supporters encouraged him in his actions by transforming his decisions into social normalcy to which the weaker members of society had to submit. Of course, in this discussion we must also mention the safety issues. The fact that most people came to listen to a single person, or a group of people, was largely due to their desire to be protected from invasion and theft.

People have several types of needs that have to be met. If they are able to build a shelter for themselves and get food, then the basic need becomes their security and that of securing their belongings. In this direction, physical strength and battle strategies are a must. If we look in the history we will easily see that the vast majority of rulers were military, or at least had skills in this area.

Battles between groups of people appeared when other needs arose, such as instinctual needs (defense and expansion of territory, to mate, access to various goods and raw materials, etc.).

Physical strength and needs were what defined people as strong or weak beings. For this reason, women and children were considered the material goods of man in many areas of the Earth, because they could not defend themselves and because they represented a vulnerability.

Because women are the ones who give birth to children and because they are able to meet the physiological needs of men to mate, in the ancient times they have been considered rather an object used only for their reproductive system, regardless of their physical constitution and their ability to contribute to the development of society in other ways.

Whether women had rights or not depended on the level of the society culture. As an example, women in ancient Greece had the same social status as women in Iran today. However, in the same period, in the ancient Egypt women had rights almost equal to those of men, and some were even pharaohs (Cleopatra, Nefertiti). So what is the reason for this enormous discrepancy between civilizations?

I would say that one of the reasons is the lifestyle of each society. While some focused on conquest, others focused on prosperity. Those focused on conquest will always emphasize the physical strength and supremacy of the strong man, while those focused on prosperity will concentrate on social development and innovation, where women have their place for a different perspective and at the same time an insider perspective of social and family life.

Another reason I would say is the mental maturity that some societies have reached. Those who developed more came to appreciate social welfare, while those who developed less were guided by instincts and were lost between needs and demands that no matter what guided them to destruction.

Along with these reasons, I would add another that had and still has a great role in the development of democracy that we have today and in ensuring women’s rights: the role of men in educating their daughters and in appreciating their wives.

As you have noticed, the issue addressed in this discussion is more about women’s rights, just as men’s rights have not suffered once they are the ones who formulate and guarantee them. But as we can see, men were the ones who decided who was given rights and who was not, they being the embodiment of power and decision-making. The role of men has been important both in depriving women of their rights and in endowing them with the rights they have today, and I will explain why.

In history, many men used to marry according to tradition, not out of love, which is why they came to hate the woman they lived with for their simple existence that prevented them from being happy with their loved one. An example in this direction is the well-known Dracula, which was in love with a 17-year-old Katarina Siegel, a simple country girl to which he wanted to marry, but in the name of his reign he was already married to Anastasia Holszanska, the niece of the Queen of Poland. The customs did not allow the annulment of the marriage with Anastasia, nor the happy living with a young woman who tried to avoid the eyes of the world that judged the non-conformity to the customs.

On the other hand, as I mentioned, the man has an important role in training strong women to defend their rights. The way fathers participate in educating their daughters, the ideas they pass on have made many women fight for their rights. Some men fought alongside their daughters to secure a good future for them, to the point of making them queens, as Genghis Khan did for his 7 daughters. Genghis Khan raised the role and status of women in the Mongol Empire. He fought to give much importance to his daughters, in this direction they received different rewards for their military and diplomatic skills, they controlled the Silk Route, assisted their father in his campaigns in China and Persia, etc.

Still, in this story is important to mention that Genghis Khan had also a son, Ögedei, which was unhappy about the powerful role of his sisters which were mentioned in the Chinese reports, Vatican letters, royal Armenian Chronicles, Muslim histories and the Taoist Temples. After his father death he killed all his female relatives to consolidate another social order and sustained the mass raping of thousands of girls in order to take revenge on the resilience and strength of the women.

A more recent example about the men that deprive or fight for women’s rights is the protests in Poland for women’s rights to decide on their bodies. Protests attended by a lot of men, fathers who want to defend the rights of their daughters and husbands who want to defend the rights of their wives.

In the end, through this analysis we can see men who have taken the rights of women and those who have fought to get them back. Knowing the history and the present, I wonder if it is not the time for women to take a more responsible attitude towards their rights and fight equally beside men for the human rights.

Sources:

Office of the Historian, W.–2. W. (2007). The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848–1920. History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives.

Poanca Popa B. (2004). Iubirea lui Vlad Dracula din Brasov. Bucuresti: Monitorul Expres.

Weatherford J. (2010). Daughters kept Khan’s empire alive. Associated Press.

Worrall S. (2018). The truth behind Egypt’s female pharaohs and their power. National Geographic.