Women in predominantly Muslim societies in Sub-Saharan Africa have been part of the movements that have shaped the African political landscape from the pre-independence period of the late 1950s and 1960s up until today. Recent developments have shown that Muslim women are assuming political leadership today as they did during the nationalist movements.

In Kenya, for example, Muslim women in the late 1950s were involved through the Muslim Women's Institute and Moslem Women's Cultural Association in a movement to petition the colonial authorities to…