The Veil and the Male Elite

A study by the Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi of the sources used to restrict women's role in Islam, first published in French as Le Harem politique. Mernissi asks whether the Prophet himself was responsible for the misogyny later justified in his name. She examines particular hadiths, such as the saying that a people who entrust their affairs to a woman will not prosper, and questions the reliability and motives of their transmitters, using the methods of classical hadith criticism. She reconstructs the life of the early community in Medina, the active roles of the Prophet's wives, notably Umm Salama, and the political pressures of the period. A central chapter reads the verse of the hijab in the light of the occasion of its revelation, arguing that it first described a curtain screening the Prophet's private quarters and was only later turned into a means of secluding women. Critics question her selective use of sources and some of her readings of early history.

It is a founding text of Islamic feminism, showing how a careful return to early sources can challenge received interpretations of women's place in religion.