The book, based on the author’s doctoral thesis, opens a window on the little-known world of the female members in the Movement’s ranks, and offers a rare glimpse into their ideological worldview, their formative experiences, and their prevalent and emerging frames of mind.

The book offers an extensive review of the activities of the women’s non-profit organizations identified with the Islamic Movement’s Southern and Northern factions, and women’s roles in the formal and informal educational institutions affiliated with the Movement. The book also examines the integration of women in the municipal political arena, the media, and the shari’a institutions identified with the Movement, and describes the Islamic Movement’s recruitment patterns. The book offers an initial social profile of the Movement’s women leaders, traces the position of its male leaders on women’s inclusion in the Movement, and analyzes the impact of this trend on the Movement’s present and future character. These issues have become all the more salient in view of the increasing academic interest in Israel’s Islamic Movement as a political and social phenomenon, and in view of the growing impact of public discourse in Israel’s Arab sector. The findings presented in this book shed light on the Movement’s actions and patterns, most of which are typically concealed from public sight as a result of the Movement’s ideological policy of separatism, , and offer readers a comprehensive picture of the current state of both the Movement’s policies and its female membership.