.... The surreal nature of this state of affairs was summed up in an Iranian TV programme I watched during the celebration of a female saint's birthday. In a room crowded with women dressed in black chadors, I saw a bearded imam on the stage preaching through the microphone to the female congregation.
He was telling the hundred or so female believers what it meant to be a Muslim woman, as if the women themselves were clueless about this particular matter. [Guardian Cif] Read more
