Believing Women in Islam by Asma Barlas (University of Texas Press, 2002)
Barlas shows how Muslims came to read inequality and patriarchy into the Quran to justify existing religious and social structures. She convincingly asserts that the Quran affirms the complete equality of the sexes, thereby offering an opportunity to theorise radical sexual equality from within the framework of its teachings. Buy this book from Amazon.

Benazir Bhutto: From prison to Prime Minister by Libby Hughes (Universal Publishers, 2000)
A biography of Benazir Bhutto, discussing her childhood, education, imprisonment, personal life, her father's assassination, and her election to prime minister of Pakistan. Buy this book from Amazon.

Islam, Gender and Social Change edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (Oxford University Press, 1998)
One of the most controversial and emotionally charged aspects of the Muslim religious resurgence has been its effect on women in Muslim societies. The essays collected in this book place the issue in its historical context and offer case studies of Muslim societies from North Africa to South East Asia. The volume as a whole militates against the stereotype of Muslim women as repressed and passive, while acknowledging the very real obstacles to women's initiatives. Buy this book from Amazon.

Living Islam: Women, religion and the politicisation of culture in Turkey by Ayse Saktanber (I B Tauris, 2002)
Tells how and why women have come to play a central role in the political project of Islamic revivalism and in the power struggles between Islamic and secular forces in Turkey. Buy this book from Amazon.

Marriage on Trial: A study of Islamic family law by Ziba Mir-Hosseini (I B Tauris, 2000) Focuses on the dynamics of marriage and its breakdown, as well as the way in which litigants manipulate the law to resolve marital disputes and child custody cases. The author shows how women can turn even the most patriarchal elements of Islamic law to their advantage. Buy this book from Amazon.

The Veil and the Male Elite by Fatima Mernissi (Perseus Books, 1992)
Argues that discrimination against women is not a fundamental tenet of Islam as many contemporary male Muslims would have us believe. Her basic premise is that Islam is inherently egalitarian and, using extensive documentation from the Quran, the Hadith and other Islamic historical commentary, Mernissi successfully proves her hypothesis. Buy this book from Amazon.

Walking Through Fire: A life of Nawal El Saadawi by Nawal El Saadawi (Zed Books, 2002)
Saadawi is known as the first Arab woman to write about sex and its relation to economics and politics. Imprisoned under Sadat for her opinions, she has continued to fight against all forms of discrimination based on class, gender, nation, race and religion. Buy this book from Amazon.

Women and Gender in Islam: Historical roots of a modern debate by Leila Ahmed (Yale University Press, 1993)
Presents an historical overview of women and gender in Islam, ranging from the ancient world to the present day. Addressing central questions including the veiling of women, the author explores how the core Islamic heritage formulated issues of gender, how it altered in terms of the concepts and societies that Islam captured, and how Islamic discourse was affected by exposure to Western societies. It is written from a feminist perspective. Buy this book from Amazon.

Women Claim Islam by Miriam Cooke (Routledge, 2000)
Presents the literature of contemporary Islamic feminist authors, and analyses their strategies for self-definition and self-empowerment. Illustrating the tremendous strides that Arab women have made towards independence since the 1970s, it seeks to shatter prevailing stereotypes. She opens the floodgates on women's Islamic literature, featuring writers like Assia Djebar, Nawal El Saadawi, Fatima Mernissi and Zaynab al-Ghazali. Buy this book from Amazon.

Women in Islam: An anthology from the Quran and Hadith edited by Nicholas Awde (Routledge, 1999)
A collection of major references to women in the Quran and Hadiths, the two central Pillars of Islam on which Islamic legislation and social practice are based. Topics covered include hygiene, divorce, marriage, sex and chastity, inheritance, and status and rights. Buy this book from Amazon.

Women in Islam: The western experience by Anne-Sofie Roald (Routledge, 2001)
The author illustrates how Islamic perceptions of women and gender relations change in Western Muslim communities. She shows how Islamic attitudes towards social concerns, such as gender relations, female circumcision and Islamic female dress emerge as responsive to culture and context, rather than rigid and inflexible, as is often perceived. Buy this book from Amazon.

Women in the Quran, Traditions and Interpretation by Barbara Freyer Stowasser (Oxford University Press, 1997)
By telling the stories of the women of sacred history in Quran and interpretation, this book presents an introduction to past and present Islamic paradigms of doctrine and their socio-economic and political applications. Buy this book from Amazon.

Beyond the Veil: Male-female dynamics in Muslim Society by Fatima Mernissi (Saqi Books, 2003)
Drawing on popular source materials, Mernissi looks at the male-female unit as a basic element of the structure of the Muslim system and shows us the sexual dynamics of the Muslim world. Buy this book from Amazon.

The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab world by Nawal el Saadawi (Zed Books, 1980)
Self-described feminist Nawal El Saadawi has had a major influence on the lives of women globally. Her outspoken support of political and sexual rights for women has resulted in her arrest on more than one occasion. In this book, the Egyptian writer openly discusses Arab women and their sexuality. Buy this book from Amazon.

The Nawal El Saadawi Reader by Nawal el Saadawi (Zed Books, 1997)
Explores a host of topics which include: women's oppression at the hands of recent interpretations of Islam; the role of women in African literature; sexual politics of development initiatives; the fight against female genital mutilation; and problems facing the internationalisation of the women's movement. Throughout her writing, she aims to shed light on the power of women in resistance – against poverty, racism, fundamentalism, and inequality of all kinds. Buy this book from Amazon.