Orientalism
Lady Montague is definitely an orientalist; that is to say that she has a very definite pre-conceived idea of the East that is largely stereotypical and more suited to the throwing of a Turkish theme party than describing what life is actually like in the Eastern regions of the globe. It is only by talking to the people she meets that she manages to open her own eyes a little more. While she still naturally views the East with Western eyes, she is also able to see an alternate reality that enables the Turkish women to see their own identity and that of their country as something completely different.
Gender Oppression
The women whom Lady Montague encounters are largely oppressed by their society in a way that Western women are not. Compelled to wear the veil, ostensibly for religious reasons, they are not free to decide for themselves whether or not they actually feel that wearing the veil is the right thing for them as an individual or not. There is very little individualism amongst the women that Lady Montague meets because the society they live in tends to see women as a group rather than as individuals. The women are also rather subservient to men and are definitely not given the opportunity to be equal within a marriage or a partnership. Their lives seem to revolve around fetching and carrying for their menfolk, rather than carving an independent life or career out for themselves.
Voiceless Lower Classes
The lower classes in the book seem to have no rights whatsoever and to the privileged Turks are barely worth a mention. Like women, they are not seen as individuals; an example of this is the Turkish Prince who orders "several persons" to be killed to quell an uprising. He does not specify which persons these should be because to him, and to others of his social standing, the lower classes are nameless and faceless and not worthy of individual acknowledgement.
