Source: USINFO

http://usinfo.state.gov/mena/Archive/2005/Aug/16-112851.html

On August 16, 2005 USINFO reported, "According to a group of Muslim-American women speaking at a panel discussion... Islam is a religion that empowers women... and contrary to popular media perceptions, Muslim women do not feel discriminated against or dispossessed within the traditions of their faith. Precious Rasheeda Muhammad [who is a Harvard Divinity School alumna], a third-generation African-American Muslim and founder-editor of the Journal of Islam in America, introduced the August 11 panel, which was held in Washington. She said the convening of such a panel itself speaks of the freedom of Muslim-American women in the United States. Muhammad outlined the history of prominent women in Islam since the revelation of the Qur'an 1,400 years ago. Some of them were political leaders and others fought as soldiers alongside men, she said... Gihan El-Gindy, an Egyptian-born Muslim-American and director of the Transcultural Educational Center (TEC) in McLean, Virginia, said there is a disconnect between Islam as practiced 1,400 years ago by the Prophet Mohammad and what is being practiced and interpreted by different Muslim countries."