Not just ‘eunuchs’ or sex workers: in ancient Mesopotamia, gender‑diverse people held positions of power

In a 4,500‑year‑old civilization spanning modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, gender‑diverse officials held high offices. The Sumerian goddess Ištar (also Inanna) empowered the Assinnu—religious attendants whose titles mean “woman‑like” or “man‑woman.” In Neo‑Assyrian clay tablets (7th c. BCE) they appear as priestesses with magical authority. Parallel to the Assinnu were the Ša rēši, courtier‑eunuchs whose Akkadian term means “one of the head.” Their beardless appearance and roles supervising palace women earned them military and administrative power, as shown on a relief from Nineveh and a stele of Bēl‑Harran‑bēlī‑ușur from Tell Abta. These figures illustrate that ancient Mesopotamian society valued gender fluidity as a source of authority, not as a marginality.