Hence the indignant refusal of Vashti to obey the command of King Aha-suerus to show herself to his Court.

Hence, too, the law which made it a capital offence to address or touch one of the royal concubines or even to pass their litters upon the road.

The litters of women were always curtained; and when the Queen Statira rode in hers with the curtains drawn, it was a novelty which attracted general attention, as a relaxation of the ordinary etiquette, though only females were allowed to come near her.

Married women might not even see their nearest male relatives, as their fathers and brothers; the unmarried had, it is probable, a little more liberty.
As the employment of eunuchs at the Persian Court was mainly in the harem, and in offices connected therewith, it is no wonder that they shared, to some extent, in the law of taboo, which forbade the representation of women.

Their proper place was in the female courts and apartments, or in close attendance upon the litters, when members of the seraglio travelled, or took the air--not in the throne-room, or the antechambers, or the outer courts of the palace, which alone furnished the scenes regarded as suitable for representation.
Of right, the position at the Persian Court immediately below that of the king belonged to the members of certain privileged families.