This book was published in the 1990s, so clearly a lot of things have occured since the first publication date. Women have been the victims of repressive religious rules, repressive social norms, repressive partners, repressive family members, and repressive politics. This is certainly a male dominated society, and I am sure some women are fine living the way they do, but others are miserable. Not all places in the Islamic World have extremely strict rules, and it was interesting to see the differences throughout the region. I would like a more updated version of this book to compare how much has changed, or what changed and then reverted back recently. This makes me appreciate living where I do, even though it is full of white men that think they should control everything and Christian conservatives.