In this article I examine the position of women in Islam, from the beginning of the 19th century till the end of the Second World War, through the eyes of female travel writers. The first women travellers who set out for the Middle East were the first outsiders to be accepted into women’s societies in the Islamic world, and thus they entered the life behind the veil. Comparing writers’ encounters with Muslim women and the Muslim world in general, I describe Muslim women throughout various stages of life.
