WOMEN WERE EQUAL TO MEN IN ANCIENT EGYPT UNDER THE LAW
"Uniquely for the ancient world, women in pharaonic Egypt enjoyed a legal status equal to that of men. Wives could testify against their husbands in a court of law. Women maintained control over their own property even after marrying (property acquired jointly by a married couple belonged one-third to the wife and two-thirds to the husband). And women were free to dispose of their wealth as they wished.
"The last point is amply demonstrated in the last will and testament of Naunakht, a woman of modest means, who lived in the mid Twentieth Dynasty, at the end of the New Kingdom. A remarkable and fascinating survival, the papyrus document was drawn up in the presence of fourteen named witnesses in the third year of the reign of Ramses V; it can be dated with remarkable precision to November 1147 B.C. In it, Naunakht sets forth how she wants her property to be divided after her death."
P. 133, "The Will of Naunakht," WRITINGS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, translated and edited by Toby Wilkinson (2006)

[image is of "Homreheb," the law-giver of the 18th Dynasty of Kemet. He was Preceptor of the boy-king, Tutankhamen, who later, after "Ay," became Pharaoh himself @ 1200 BC, when he added strength to the much more ancient law of MAAT, to expel corruption and lucre out of his country by reforming officials and/or punished or banished them]
Friday, September 29, 2017
FEMALE EQUALITY IN KEMET
WOMEN WERE EQUAL TO MEN IN ANCIENT EGYPT UNDER THE LAW
"Uniquely for the ancient world, women in pharaonic Egypt enjoyed a legal status equal to that of men. Wives could testify against their husbands in a court of law. Women maintained control over their own property even after marrying (property acquired jointly by a married couple belonged one-third to the wife and two-thirds to the husband). And women were free to dispose of their wealth as they wished.
"The last point is amply demonstrated in the last will and testament of Naunakht, a woman of modest means, who lived in the mid Twentieth Dynasty, at the end of the New Kingdom. A remarkable and fascinating survival, the papyrus document was drawn up in the presence of fourteen named witnesses in the third year of the reign of Ramses V; it can be dated with remarkable precision to November 1147 B.C. In it, Naunakht sets forth how she wants her property to be divided after her death."
P. 133, "The Will of Naunakht," WRITINGS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, translated and edited by Toby Wilkinson (2006)

[image is of "Homreheb," the law-giver of the 18th Dynasty of Kemet. He was Preceptor of the boy-king, Tutankhamen, who later, after "Ay," became Pharaoh himself @ 1200 BC, when he added strength to the much more ancient law of MAAT, to expel corruption and lucre out of his country by reforming officials and/or punished or banished them]