Subjunctives – Meaning of ‘Had I Been’ in Sentence Structure

subjunctives

I've seen this structure on a Quora post

Had I been a Muslim man, I would've been able to have sex plenty, and society wouldn't know at all because I would've had no hymen, but as a Muslim woman, my sins were easier to track.

What does that "Had I + Past participle verb" mean?

This is the post I'm referring to:

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-you-stop-wearing-a-hijab/answer/Salma-Medina-1?ch=10&share=fc0fe9cf&srid=HF4KJ

Best Answer

Had I been a muslimman, I would have been able to have sex plenty

This is equal to the unfulfulled conditional (conditional 3)

If I had been a muslim man , I would have been able to have sex plenty

The only difference between the two structutes is :

In the first sentence there is an inversion of the verb had and if is omitted..

The sentence means I was not a muslim man ( but I was a muslim woman), so I was not able to have sex plenty

In the link you provided, The woman thinks that as a muslim woman she did not have the freedom of a muslim man. She was not able to do what she wanted to do as she was a muslim woman

You can use similar structures in your writing.

Had I been a professor, I would have taught English lessons

Had I been a doctor, I would have treated the patients