Hello Ruby It seems to me that treatment of women in Islam differs from country to country, and from culture to culture. For example, my friend comes from Kuala Lumpar. Although she follows her religion and doesn't drink alcohol, she's a sophisticated and well-educated lady who dresses in the most wonderfully stylish western clothes. To my great chagrin, even though she holds a responsible professional position, and works hard, she looks after her husband to the 'nth' degree - and although I continually rib her about it, and we laugh a lot, in truth I attribute it to the culture in which she was raised - and so does she. She can't help herself - she's been 'programmed' that way. I have travelled fairly widely and, in my experience, women in some Muslim countries are repressed - and often dreadfully so - so we cannot regard all Islamic countries in the same way - or in some cases, consider them even vaguely similar.
Incidentally, have you read 'Brick Lane', or 'The Bookseller of Kabul'? Both well worth a look.