Slaves in Islam
Please don't mind my wording, I am just being blunt. I am mainly talking about Sunni Islam, since I am Sunni.
If Islam banned sexual relations between female owner and male slaves, then why couldn't Islam also ban sexual relations between male owners and female slaves?
Most explanations I get when asked "why didn't Islam abolish slavery" is that it was important socioeconomically, which I agree even though it is not ideal. But I still don't quite get why Islam couldn't just ban sexual relations with female slaves. Female slaves had to not only do labour work but also had to be "forced" to have sex with their master, while male slaves only had to do labour work.
This is obviously quite unfair. I'm not saying that I support any particular gender being forced to have sex, but clearly it's not very consistent if male slaves aren't obliged to have sexual relations with their female master, while female slaves were obliged to have sexual relations with their male master. Why does one gender get punished, purely because they happened to be a female and not a male slave?
Why is it a problem? Because female slaves could not give consent. Their consent did not matter (according to most scholars). Most people say "modern form of consent did not exist 1400 years ago". However, I would argue that the "modern" form of consent is something that should be universally accepted, regardless of time, because a woman, whether slave or not, should not be forced into having sex with a man she doesn't want to have sex with. This is really basic. It's a violation of individual autonomy for a person to be obliged to do so. So why would Allah, The All-Knowing, not ban sex between male owner and his female slaves, knowing that it's not possible for the poor woman to give proper consent? I am not suggesting that slavery should've been abolished completely because that was unrealistic socioeconomically in that era, but I am just wondering why sex between a male master and female master couldn't be banned, especially if it was banned the other way around which apparently wasn't a problem?
Some people argue that this is the reason why Islam "abolished" slavery. However, it is to be noted that Islam only regulated slavery. Yes, I agree that it made conditions for slaves better than they used to be. But even so, Islam did not ban slavery completely. The only reason why it's banned in this day and age is because in the 1900s, Islamic countries faced international pressures which basically forced most of them to sign a treaty to ban slavery. If those international pressures did not exist, then maybe slavery in Islamic countries would have continued even to this date. But Allah knows best.