Now, with Iran's tentative turn toward moderation and the muted Hezbollah reaction to Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon signaling a possible Shiite softening, attention is turning to what inspiration the Taliban may provide to Sunnis elsewhere. When we talk about militancy in the first part of the 21st century . . . The export of those ideals is steaming ahead. Pakistan are imposing restrictions on dress and entertainment modeled on Taliban rules. Millions of women run small businesses.
Women are the key workers in textiles, the nation's top export industry.
The government encourages girls to get educated. The country is Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of 126 million. Asia is a showcase for the diversity of the roles women can play in Muslim societies. In addition to their labor, women have been heads of state in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Indonesia currently has a female vice president. With the clear exception of Afghanistan, Islam in Asian nations imposes fewer restrictions on relations between the sexes than in Muslim regimes in Arab nations, experts say.