Relates the story of a woman born in a harem in Morocco, growing up with wise, funny, individualistic women, and creating a fantasy world from sheer imagination because the outside world was inaccessible[...]

An expanded and updated edition of this classic study includes a new introduction on Muslim women and fundamentalism, in which Fatima Mernissi argues that the present conservative wave against women in the Muslim world is a defence against recent profound changes in sex roles and in perceptions of s[...]

In this extraordinary and powerful book, now available in paperback, Fatima Mernissi, one of the most original and distinctive voices in the Islamic world, uncovers a hidden history of women leaders of Islamic states stretching back over fifteen centuries.[...]