For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on Western society's misconceptions about women in the Islamic faith. Much of the problem is derived from the fact that many questionable beliefs and practices concerning women in Middle Eastern cultures have been labeled "Muslim" or "Islam" without warranting those names. There are approximately 40 nations of the world which claim to have a Muslim population and therefore to be exemplary of "Muslim" or "Islamic" societies. Naturally, this results in a great deal of confusion as to which of these nations represents most faithfully the true "Islamic" society. Among Muslims, that question is most frequently answered by the claim that their own nation or region is the truest to the intentions of Allah.