I read "Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation" along with another collection of articles edited by Mahnaz Afkhami: "Faith and Freedom : Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World". They were both fantastic although I preferred "Muslim Women" because it is more recent and has some interesting information about the progress of women's rights in various parts of the Muslim world as well as some interesting perspectives on how women can go about interpreting Islam for themselves. A small criticism I have is that I would have liked the articles to go more in-depth on this particular point (women interpreting Islam for themselves). For example one of the authors makes the point that in the few places that the Qur'an limits the rights of one segment of society (eg. women as wives) that this is contextual and not an eternal, immutable principle. However I would have liked to have seen this demonstrated properly from the texts themselves.

Anyway, I do recommend the collection as a valuable read for anyone generally interested in Muslim women and women's rights in the Muslim world.