Women and Islam When Samira Makhmalbaf was giving interviews about her new film, "Apple" in 1998, she was asked whether her country, Iran, was a place where young disabled girls are kept locked away in their homes or where 17 year old girls made films that played at film festivals around the world. The reality is that both are equally true. Samira was indeed 17, when she directed the film, which is centred around the true story of two deaf 11 year old girls, whose parents kept them isolated from society. This irony encapsulates the complex reality of Muslim women's lives. The only thing that universally characterizes us is our diversity. Unfortunately the majority of the discourse about us occupies one of the two polar opposite positions. Either we hear about the abject oppression of Muslim women or that, "Islam liberated women 1400 years ago". But reality cannot be contained in such simplistic formulations. Women's lives vary drastically and are dependent on many other things besides gender. Any attempt to speak about millions of women without reference to time period, class, culture, ethnicity, education or employment, is bound to be inaccurate. While the text and the spirit of Islam are empowering for many women, the practice of it by various societies is often not. The distinction between scriptural Islam and the cultural practice of Islam is often massive. And more critically the variances in how Islam is interpreted and applied have differed substantially between time periods and across regions. Scholars like Amina Wadud and Leila Ahmad have reinvigorated the discourse by studying precisely these differences and documenting how subtle changes in the interpretation of religious texts, impact on women's social and political lives. As well, Muslim women from various regions have challenged their respective society's understandings of gender roles and have advocated for women to have greater control over their own education, mobility and their families. These movements may differ from one another, and from similar movements in the West, in terms of their priorities and their methodology, but combined they form a rich tapestry of women's scholarship and activism. by Itrath Syed, April 2002