The reason given, is two-fold; the first being that women cannot be trusted to keep a secret, and the second because they are considered by the Nusairiyeh as something unclean.

They believe that the soul of a wicked man may pass at death into a brute, or he may be punished for his sins in this life by being born in a woman's form in the next generation.

And so, if a woman live in virtue and obedience, there is hope of her again being born into the world _as a man_, and becoming one of the illuminati and possessors of the secret.

It is a long time for the poor things to wait, but it is a convenient reward for their husbands to hold out before them.
Yet the women are so religiously inclined by nature that they will have some object of worship, and while their husbands, fathers and sons are talking and praying about the celestial hierarchies, and the unfathomable mysteries, the wives, mothers and daughters will throng the "zeyarehs," or holy visiting shrines, on the hill tops, and among the groves of green trees, to propitiate the favor of the reputed saints of ancient days.

These shrines are supposed to have miraculous powers, but Friday is the day when the prophets are more especially "at home," to receive visitors.