HAIFAA A. JAWAD is Senior Lecturer in Middle East and Islamic Studies at Westhill College, Birmingham. She previously taught politics and international relations at Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, and New England College, Arundel. Born in Baghdad, Dr Jawad gained her PhD from Exeter University in 1989. She has specialised on Euro-Arab relations, the socio-political study of Islam, Islam and the west and women's issues in Islam. Among her most recent publications is The Middle East in the New World Order (1997). Currently she is on secondment at the Religious Department of Lancaster University.