But Arabia before Islam was a society where there were no rules, except that the strong dominated the weak. It seems reasonable to expect that a natural byproduct of such society would be the oppression of women. In fact, alongside the examples of strong and independent women, there are numerous reports of women having an inferior status. Female infanticide, for instance, was practiced by fathers who did not value their daughters as much as they valued their sons. In areas, such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, women were often deprived of their basic rights- to choose their husbands freely, to divorce if ill-treated or to inherit from their families