Code Of Hammurabi Essay

The Code of Hammurabi was written by King Hammurabi and were the first set of laws to ever be created. Hammurabi created 282 laws, that set standards in his empire and in ancient Mesopotamia. Hammurabi made it clear that the laws were not only to equalize society but also establish fairness and also protect the weak from the strong. However, according to the laws, the punishment for men, women, rich, and the poor, were all different; leading that he made the laws unfair. The women of Mesopotamia had a series of laws where it clearly shows they were classified as property. Some laws had harsh punishments and other laws you just had to pay for what you did. Hammurabi clearly showed the opposite of equal among the social classes, by favoring the rich and making it harder for the poor. With the different social classes,

In law #129 it states, "If a man's wife be surprised with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves." In law #141, the husband has the option to make her a servant if he doesn’t want to release her. I can see that women weren’t just wives but their husband’s property. Hammurabi made it clear, that wives had to be 100% faithful to their husband, which doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but it’s in a way where it showed women should only obey their husband. I believe that Hammurabi didn’t believe in “love” or relationship. He looked at marriage in a way just to produce children, that’s all. Hammurabi didn't let women have a chance to proves themselves as someone valuable because of all these laws! I also see that Hammurabi look at women as weak when it came to working and money because men would bring home the food and work for money. Overall the women belonged to their husband, it was hard to achieve any gender equality because of so many restrictions when it came to money, marriage and work