Perhaps this should help where the article came short…hopefully http://nikk.no/Women%27s+Conversions+to+Islam:+Equality+and+Obedience.9U...

Position of women in Islam is so precious, because the brilliant generation will be born from her womb. In the culture of ignorance before Islam, women are considered very low and not a little contempt even when born girls will be buried alive. They looked at her with one eye, and even despised and worthless. After the arrival of Islam, proved the women can breathe free air and given her the task of building a civilized society.

"having grown up with the benefits that four decades of feminism have brought" Yes, feminism has brought some benefits, such as equal pay, equal job opportunities etc. However, in my opinion it has brought with it many problems as well, and it is these problems that such women are rebelling against.

I agree that this article is incredibly biased. The writer claims to be searching for an answer to her questions, but it seems like she actively sought the most messed up examples. There are examples of oppression and mysogyny everywhere, in every tradition and religion. Islam is not the culprit. As someone who has earned a MA in the subject of Islam/consciousness and feminism, who is married to a native born Muslim, who raises children with him, who practices Islam herself, who has traveled all over the world, I can assure you that it is not the original and true message of Islam to control women and treat them poorly. People who do so in the name of God are making a serious mistake.

Is this article for real? It sounds like the author is finding the most messed-up people in the world to write about! I'm sure if she conducted an unbiased research her findings would be much different.

If we in the West treasured our cultural and ethnic heritage, there would be a lot less of this.

One of the interviewees said it. She wanted certainty and there is the age old bargain of "obey and you will be looked after". This is a lie of course, but it looks good for a while.Then some people truely are masochistic. Converting after a gang rape suggests not all being mentally well at all. A huge need for certainty and even faux security.

There are as many reasons to convert as there are converts, but there are themes. Saskia - became entrenched in rebelling against a controlling Mum? Here was a great way of passive-aggressively attacking her whilst beating her at her own game. Look at me Mum! This is what real control looks like! Etc. The line about wanting certainty and finding it, or at least it's appearance, speaks volumes. A powerful psychological need for something solid to push against which holds firm. Mum and Dad didn't fit the bill so she found an alternative. Fatima - subsequent to abuse and psychological trauma she finds the illusion of perfect safety and a place to belong and be guarded. Who wouldn't want this? She actually says now she feels she can go anywhere and be safe. Yippee. Except it's just not the case. I've personally been told two separate accounts of having one's backside groped when performing Tawaf, by two seperate women years apart, with no knowledge of the other. In the crowds and with the anonymity some men's hands get to wandering and being yards from the kabaa doesn't seem to have troubled them too much. Plenty of muslim don't believe a word in the quraan and many millions can't read a word of it. What they are clear about though is that it maintains their privileged position and gives them all the best cards to play. Warm feelings of acceptance, belonging and perfect safety are conflated with veracity. But their are cracks, the doubts keep poking their head over the parapet. Yasmin - In a state of abject shock she is told she is to blame for her violation and told how to avoid a repeat of this unspeakable traumatic horror. she promptly finds an abusive man and recreates her victimhood, perhaps a combined attempt at searching for meaning through repetition and self-punishment for her internalised badness? In time her battered self-esteem recovers somewhat. All religions are vehicles for the negotiation of power. They serve the most selfish and ruthless men in society, surrounded by herds of useful idiots who can't make it through without empty promises of safety and justice from substitute parents. As a male who considers himself a feminist I find this article profoundly depressing but hold on to glimmers of hope around Yasmin and Fatima. I'm just the same in that I need to hold on to something impossible, namely my fantasy of all being made better, but at least I know it and can argue that it is healthier and more constructive.

"Perhaps it is my disdain for all religion, perhaps my radical feminism." Perhaps it is because you have a sound head upon your shoulders. It's a big world. There are lots of freaks and oddballs, some perfectly nice. I've an American friend who is becoming an Orthodox priest, another who follows the Bhagwan. People are peculiar - just don't try to see the logic in it. There is none.

Full disclosure, I am a practicing Catholic, married white woman with a college degree and fairly high-level job in health care. That said, I walked away from this article without clarity or an enlightened concept of "Why do Western Women Convert?" because this "journalism" piece was so heavily peppered with commentary and judgement and obvious agenda it was impossible to pick out facts and the perspective of the women interviewed. Of course, the pub is called "Standpoint" so I guess I should have prepared myself for the skew. I was genuinely looking forward to some straightforward reporting. Disappointing the author was too inexperienced or immature to deliver.