An American journalist provides insights into women's lives, and the traditions imposed on them, from arranged marriages to a husband's right to take his wife's life, in many Islamic countries. The women depicted - both single and married - are from a variety of backgrounds and environments, from power-broking, the jet-set and the professions, to rural villages, red-light districts and child-labour camps. Some of the women are content; some are resigned. Others, especially the educated, are incensed by social norms that allow them to be confined, even killed, for the sake of a man's honour. Jan Goodwin is the author of "Caught in the Crossfire", an account of her experiences travelling with Afghanistan's mujahideen fighters during the war against the Soviet Union.