Hammurabi's Code

The empire of Babylon and Mesopotamia, dependent on the Tigris and Euphrates river flourished under King Hammurabi’s rule. Hammurabi was a powerful ruler and saw himself as the “king of righteousness”. He believed the strong should not oppress the weak, thus he created Hammurabi’s Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar for the people of his kingdom to abide by. Although Hammurabi promoted equality amongst his citizens and some of his laws were just, the vast majority of his code was unjustifiable for several reasons. His punishments often didn't apply to men, slaves had less of a reimbursement than free men, and most of his punishments were very extreme and harsh for the crime committed. If Hammurabi created this code to promote equality and believed that the strong shall not injure the weak, why were his laws favored towards some?

Although women in the Babylonian Empire did have many rights, they were still treated as inferior to men. Many of Hammurabi’s laws were targeted mainly towards women than men. An example of this gender discrimination/inequality is found in Law 129. In this law, Hammurabi claims that if a married woman is caught having another affair, she will be bound together with her lover and drowned. Seems a bit too extreme for cheating on your spouse? This law never suggests what would happen if the husband is caught in another affair. According to Hammurabi’s family laws, after marriage, a woman became property to her husband, while the husband was free to have affairs with whomever he wanted with no punishment. Also, motherhood was recognized, but fatherhood was not. Men had no obligation to children if they did not wish to claim them. Moreover, women were generally regarded as property or slaves to men. There was no possible way for a woman to achieve gender equality because of the restrictions imposed on her marriage, money, and work opportunities. The many restrictions put upon women clearly show the gender discrimination created by Hammurabi’s code and would lead to more even after Hammurabi’s rule.

A second reason Hammurabi’s code is unjustifiable is because slaves had less of a reimbursement than free men. An example of this social class discrimination is found in multiple laws throughout the code such as Law 209 and Law 213. In these set of laws, if one has struck the daughter of a free man, he is punished, however if one had struck the daughter of a slave, he would only be punished for ⅕ the value than for the higher social class. By having different punishments for different social classes, deeper class distinctions were created.