conclude that Islam infringes the rights of women and that the core of Islam is very patriarchal. Others like Leila Ahmed and Riffat Hassan argue that the core of Islam protects the rights of women, however it is the interpretation and the Hadith which has been written by men, that divides the sexes and puts women at a disadvantage. Although Ahmed and Hassan both have differing aspects in their articles, their main arguments and view are essentially the same. Their views as written in their articles will be discussed further in this essay. In Leila Ahmed’s article,A border Passage: From Cairo to America- A Women’s Journey, she compares the different views that she came across from Cairo to America, as well she discusses stories of Muslim women in her family. Her main argument or thesis is that women’s interpretation of Islam differs from men’s or the “official” Islam. However, she also notes that there is variability among beliefs of Muslim women. The main points that she discusses in her article are that there are differences in the ways of men’s and women’s knowledge. This difference is due to women’s lack of literacy and the fact that women were prohibited to attend the mosque, therefore they could not here the same sermons that the men heard on a
