The Christian Science Monitor has the best article on women in Islamic societies that I’ve read so far. Over the past month or so, every article I’ve read that actually has quotes from Muslim women says that Westerners need to get over the veil, that there are bigger fish to fry. This article, which discusses women in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan, discusses what role women play in those conservative Islamic countries and what issues they face. It’s a great article. (The sidebar discusses how women were treated in the prophet’s lifetime. Islam was actually very liberating back then, it established legal rights for women in an era when they basically had none.)