In its extreme forms, Islam creates a near total division between the daily lives of men and women. A daughter wears a veil from an early age, and is married to a man chosen by her father or guardian. Men may take as many as four wives and have the right to repudiate any one as they wish, unlike women, who have very few grounds for divorce. But even in the strictest Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, most women go to state schools (photo above), and can continue their studies at a university. In countries that achieved their independence from European powers after 1945 - such as Egypt, Tunisia, Malaysia, and Indonesia - upper-class women that enjoyed the relative freedom of colonial rule find their lifestyles threatened by revivals of traditional Muslim doctrine.
