A few years ago, the Moroccan feminist writer Fatema Mernissi published Scheherezade Goes West, a book in which she drew comparisons between the treatment of women in the west and in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Men in both societies, she concluded, oppressed their women, but in different ways: the west by only allowing youthful women to express their sexuality, and only in certain ways; Islamic societies by allowing sexual expression, but limiting women's physical space.

Some thirty imams from Morocco and with them a few "mourchidat" (spiritual advisers) are to reach these days Italy to follow the Muslim community in Italy in the sacred month of Ramadan which begins next week.