record shall be investigated at her city council". The quote further goes on to state that if the court does not find the wife to be at fault, then she will be allowed to return to her father's home. Veiling During pre-Islamic times, the Assyrian law clearly depicted within their written regulation who was allowed to veil. Those women who were family to "seigniors" had to veil as well as those who were previously prostitutes but now married. Laws on veiling were so strict that intolerable consequences were enacted for these women, some of which included being severely beaten or cutting their ears off. Prostitutes and slaves were prohibited from veiling. The veil was not only used to classifying women according to their status, but it also labeled them based on their sexual activity and marital status. Women of upper class status While the general population, of women in pre-Islamic Arabia did not have many rights, upper-class women had more. Many became 'naditum', or priestesses, which would in turn give them even more rights. These women were able to own and inherit property. In addition, the naditum were able to play an active role in the economic life of their community. The Samad Late Iron Age population in central Oman show archaeologically women of both high and low social rank. Marriage practices In pre-Islamic Arabia, a variety of different marriage practices existed. The most common and recognized types of marriage at this time consisted of: marriage by agreement, marriage by capture, marriage by purchase, marriage by inheritance and Mut'ah or temporary marriage. Family structure and motherhood Research on the family structure of pre-Islamic Arabia has many ambiguous views so it becomes difficult to know the exact structure of the family during this time period. Family structure that may have been of a typical tribe during pre-Islamic Arabia was patriarchal and the relations in the family were between other relations with men. It was vital for families to have boys rather than girls because men were viewed as superior to women. Within the family the women did not have any parental rights over their children even if the father had died, and it is claimed that women had no rights of inheritance. However, it is clear that many widows were able to inherit from their husbands and were quite wealthy, Muhammad's wife Khadija and many other early widows of Islam included,