A recent study on the position of women in 58 countries shows some surprising results. Since this is an Islamic forum I will focus mostly on Islamic nations. The top five nations in the world for female emancipation are:

1:Sweden

2:Norway

3:Iceland

4:Denmark

5:Finland

Not surprising that the Nordic nations with a strong tradition of a social welfare state has been the most favourable in which can live. These nations are lucky to be blessed with ample natural resources, small populations which means that female participation in the economy is high and thus emanicipation much more likely, and the governments in these countries have very generous welfare states which generally benefit families and women, especially in terms of rights. The United States which has a mixed economy in which there is the inkling of the "New Deal" welfare state, but the neo-liberal policies since 1980 from the Reagan era has greatly reduced the power of women within the US, women in the US generally are not paid as much as men for the same job, and since there a genuine lack of a effective welfare state American women are compared to other women in the West disadvantaged (the USA ranks in as 17). The first predominantely Muslim to appear on the list is Bangladesh at number 39, Bangladesh is a nation which is desperately poor but has generally been a secular state with a female as Prime Minister and Female as opposition leader. The country has a more moderate take on Islam compared to Wahhabi Arab states in the Persian Gulf region, and the Pakistani version of Islam which has now been tainted with more Wahhabism and Taliban malformations of Islam, also another problem in Pakistan is the seeming supremacy of tribal customs which are generally anti-women and possibly if not surely anti-Islamic. Another success story is Malaysia (40), with a booming economy, a moderate Islam, a growing democracy, and a pro-peace and democratic Islamic parties the country has been able to prosper and women do participate in the workforce which allows for great economic, and thus social freedom. As we go down the list we can see that Pakistan (56), Turkey (57), and Egypt (58) rank at the very bottom of this list. Although Pakistan does not surprise me, Turkey most certainly does I am not even sure as to why Turkey ranks so low on this measure. Surprising but not shocking is the position of Egypt, I am not sure for the reasons for this. But as Turkey shows a extremist secularist state cannot guarentee female emancipation, and Egypt has shown that Arabist policies are not condusive to emancipation as well. Here the source of the study:

http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Global+Co mpetitiveness+Programme%5CWomen%27s+Empowerment%3A+Measuring +the+Global+Gender+Gap

If anyone has opinions on Turkey, Egypt's position and to possible reasons why please do educate me.