It is a common assumption in the U.S. that all Muslim women are oppressed, and that their religion forces them to cover their bodies and even their faces, denies them education and the right to work, and makes them subservient to men. While it is certainly true that most Muslim women, like women in other cultures, struggle against various forms of inequality and discrimination, it is important to distinguish carefully between constraints imposed by Islam as a religion on the one hand and local cultural and legal restrictions on women’s autonomy on the other.

It is a common assumption in the U.S. that all Muslim women are oppressed, and that their religion forces them to cover their bodies and even their faces, denies them education and the right to work, and makes them subservient to men. It is important, however, to distinguish carefully between constraints imposed by Islam as a religion on the one hand and local cultural and legal restrictions on women’s autonomy on the other.

As Jon Alterman has pointed out in his chapter, The Internet, from "New Media, New Politics? From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World" the Arab world has joined in the global enthusiasm for the Internet. It is available in almost every Arab country, and the number of users grows monthly.