As a Muslim woman I was greatly disturbed by the article in the Woman News section entitled “A feminist’s case against Islam” (Feb. 1). Although the reporter attempts to offer the truth to the readers through the voice of Fadwa El Guindi, this reality is lost between the fallacies Phyllis Chesler is trying to promote.

It is fair to say that women in many parts of the Muslim world have been prevented from receiving equal rights with men. But it is not fair to say that the rights of women in Iraq have somehow gotten better because of the presence of American troops in the country, an idea Karen Hughes tried to sell to Muslim women who oppose the war in Iraq.

There is a myth circulating around the world that women’s rights in the West are perfect. Thus any other body of rights is automatically labeled as discriminatory. In his column Derrick Z. Jackson propagates this myth by claiming, “It would be a travesty of American women, who have fought for equality to the level of dying in the military, did all this dying only to watch the burials of women’s rights in Iraq” (“What are our women fighting for?” Aug. 15).