A survey of the status of women in the Islamic world, Goodwin (who lived in the region for a number of years) traveled and interviewed women throughout the Middle East, Arabia and Central Asia for this alarming portrait of Muslim extremist movements. A chapter is devoted to Afghanistan under the Taliban, which Goodwin calls the world's the most oppressive society toward women. A journalist and human rights activist (and former editor of the Ladies Home Journal) she has also written "Caught in the Crossfire" about her time undercover with the resistance in Kabul in the 1980s.  (ISL19, $16.00)

Islam