Without a doubt, there are many devout Muslim women who serve their families, neighbors and communities with the highest standards of integrity and care for humanity. They are just as sincere in their desire to provide a good home life for their children and to follow the guidelines that they have been taught in their religion of Islam. Although many strive to exemplify the best of what is expected of them, some still experience a deep sense of loss in the things that they cannot do in life because of the imposed restrictions set upon them by the ideologies that govern their everyday life. The fear of speaking up prevents them from advancing to the levels in a society whose ideology places women in an inferior second-class status to their male counterpart. Such is the case throughout the Arab world. By contrast, moderate Muslim women living in America and other western nations today enjoy the opportunity they have at expressing themselves and are placed on the same level as men. For example, in the democratic process the vote of a Muslim woman counts the same as that of any man. Not so in the Islamic Arab world where women have been denied voting privileges throughout the centuries. Even in the Islamic courts of law, it takes two female witnesses to equal that of one male witness. According to what is taught in Islamic theology, it is "Allah" that has commanded this to be: