Veiling Muslim women

Unfortunately, as in Christianity, the religion was later hijacked by the men, who interpreted text in a way that was negative for Muslim women. The Quran does not prescribe the veil for all women but only for Muhammad's wives, as a mark of their status. Once Islam had taken its place in the civilized world, however, Muslims adopted those customs of the Oikumene which relegated women to second-class status. They adopted the customs veiling women and secluding them in harems from Persia and Christian Byzantium, where women had long been marginalized in this way. By the time of the Abbasid caliphate (750 - 1258) the position of Muslim women was as bad as that of their sisters in Jewish and Christian society. Today Muslim feminist urge their men folk to return to the original spirit of the Quran.

Unity: The God of Islam page 158, from The History of God by Karen Armstrong