1. Chasing a Mirage
   The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2008
   According to Tarek Fatah, "Morality is doing what is right, regardless what we are told; Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right." Fatah argues that since Islam's advent, there have been two parallel strains of the religion that are in clash. The first "state of Islam" is a person's moral compass; the way Islam governs an individual's personal life. By contrast, the yearning for "an Islamic state" has been bloody and fruitless.
2. Cliffites Deal in Religious Opiate
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2007
   All religions and all religious organizations serve to mystify and obscure the class basis of oppression in capitalist society.
3. Half the Sky
   Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2009
   Describes the health and situation of women worldwide by investigating issues such as rampant gendercide in the developing world and gender discrimation in the labour force. The authors aim to bring attention to the plight of women in developing countries.
4. I am not that Woman in a burqa
   A Palestinian novelist remembers the liberated, educated women of her life, and how their freedom has been, and is being, curtailed.
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2015
   Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifeh discusses growing up as a girl and woman in Arab culture, and how Arab women are represented in Western culture.
5. Infidel
   Resource Type: Book
   First Published: 2007
   Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali woman who escaped a forced marriage and moved to the Netherlands, where she became a spokeswoman for Muslim women's rights. She tells the story of how her experiences led her to question her faith.
   
6. Iran: Compulsory veiling is abusive, discriminatory and humiliating; end the persecution of women for peacefully protesting against it
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2018
   Amnesty International criticizes Iran's compulsory veiling laws, arguing that they are not only harmful to women, but fundamentally unconstitutional.
7. Iraq: Women's Liberation and the Struggle Against Imperialist Subjugation
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2003
   The women of Iraq illustrate the status of most of the world's women, caught between the domination of imperialism and the oppression of stifling ancient 'customs' like the veil, holdovers from a more backward era.
8. My Stealthy Freedom: The Hijab in Iran and in the West
   Resource Type: Article
   First Published: 2017
   An interview with Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the forced hijab policy in Iran, about how the Islamic Revolution affected women, compulsory hijab laws, and her activism.
9. Radical Digressions 5
   Resource Type: Website
   First Published: 2008
   
10. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
    Resource Type: Website
    Women opposed to the Taliban, to the Afghan government, and to the foreign forces in Afghanistan.
11. Sharia "Socialists"
    I.S. Upholds Anti-Woman Religious Courts
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2006
    It is mind-boggling that self-styled leftists would champion a campaign by the most reactionary, anti-woman forces in the Muslim community to have their religious law backed by the authority of the capitalist state.
12. The Veil and Violence against Women in Islamist Societies
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2007
    The ongoing battle between the Islamic authorities and women over the veil clearly reveals why it has become a symbol like no other of the violence women face under Islam and why 'improper' or 'bad' veiling and unveiling have become a symbol of resistance to Islam in power and its violence against women. It is for this very reason that the slogan 'neither veil nor submission' has become a rallying cry ever since the regime imposed compulsory veiling on women after expropriating and crushing the revolution to consolidate its rule.
13. What's all the fuss about the veil?
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2007
    It is impossible to address the status of women under Islamic laws and defend women’s rights without addressing and denouncing the veil. And this is why the veil is the first thing that Islamists impose when they have any access to power.
14. Why make a fuss about the murder of a brown-skinned Muslim girl?
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2008
    History gives us numerous examples of social movements which come, over time, to adopt positions directly opposed to the principles on which they were founded. It appears this has happened to the 'feminists' who seek to silence those who speak out about violence against Muslim women.
15. Women Enslaved by Islamic Reaction
    Taliban: Bitter Fruit of U.S. Imperialism's Anti-Soviet War
    Resource Type: Article
    First Published: 2001
    There is nothing progressive or "anti-imperialist" about being shrouded in the veil. Nor is it, as some liberals would maintain, a quaint cultural attribute. You wouldn't think you would have to be a communist to see that wrapping a woman in a veil and secluding her in the home is a hideous oppression crying out to be wiped from the face of the earth. The veil is a physical symbol of the submission of women to men and the imposed affirmation of their inferior status.

Experts on Frauen & Islam in the Sources Directory

1. Women Living Under Muslim Law