BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: As relief and rebuilding continue in Afghanistan, the role of women there and throughout the Muslim world is getting more and more attention. Does the Koran subjugate women to men? Have centuries of male dominance prevented many Muslim women from seeing themselves as individual persons?

Deryl Davis discovered many different opinions among Muslim women in the U.S. He also heard the same women say true Islam is liberating.

DERYL DAVIS: Belquis Babi's home is unusually quiet this year. That's because her two young sons are gone.

Tariq and Khalid were kidnapped by their father -- a Taliban supporter -- and taken to Afghanistan. Belquis hasn't seen them in over a year.

BELQUIS BABI: I wish one day they come back.

DAVIS: Belquis's story, a tale of wife-beating and child abduction, resonates with many westerners. It fits a popular conception that Islam discriminates against women. In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. Kuwaiti women still can't vote. The Taliban forced Afghan women to cover themselves head to toe. They didn't allow women to work or go to school.

RIFFAT HASSAN (Muslim scholar, University of Louisville): The vast majority of Muslim men and the vast majority of Muslim women actually believe that men are superior to women and women are inferior to men.

DAVIS: But a diverse group of Muslim women in the U.S. has other opinions. They say Islam offers many freedoms.

NERMEEN SLIM (Social Services, Islamic Foundation of America): Islam is liberating in everything in all means.

SHARIFA ALKHATEEB (President, North American Council for Muslim Women): I find it liberating, definitely. But it's sort of like it's liberating but it's a continuous struggle.

DAVIS: Like many Muslims here in the U.S., these women say it's not their religion that oppresses women.

Ms. ALKHATEEB: There's a wide gap between the ideal, which is in the pages of the Koran and the real, which is what women are living under. It's not Islam that, you know, mistreats women it's Muslims who mistreat women.

Ms. BABI: He used always Islam against me. Always he said like in Koran they said like the woman should do this and that and it's okay for the man to beat the wife.

DAVIS: Such behavior is rooted in the widely held belief that Islam makes wives subservient to their husbands.

Ms. SLIM: If she obeys her husband and if she keeps her chastity she'll enter paradise from any door she wishes.

DAVIS: Legal scholar Azizah al Hibri says the requirement for obedience is a misinterpretation of the Koran.

Dr. AZIZAH AL HIBRI: There is a verse in the Koran which says that men are -- and I will use an Arabic word here -- "qawwamun" over women. The question was "What does the word 'qawwamun' mean?" And the men said it means that men are basically superior to women. They lord over them. And what it really means is to take care of somebody, to be concerned about, worry about, support financially, whatever.

DAVIS: The proper relationship between men and women is hotly debated.

Ms. ALKHATEEB: Ultimate obedience is only to God -- not to any human being. It's one of the key issues that's terribly misunderstood within the Muslim families -- this idea of obeying a human being.

Ms. SLIM: But there is one thing. There is "al-qa'aed" in Arabic, which is the leader. You know, like leadership in the family should be for the husband. If he's a just true Muslim, he'll be a fair leader. He'll have "shura" consultation with his wife.

Ms. ALKHATEEB: What she said, "if," is a huge if -- it's a huge if. IF the husband is truly enlightened and so forth. I really haven't seen that many Muslim husbands that are truly enlightened to tell you the truth.

Ms. SLIM: I've seen a lot in my life.

Ms. ALKHATEEB: Well, maybe she has, but I haven't in my life.

DAVIS: Perhaps nothing has been so visible or so open to misinterpretation as what Muslim women wear. In western eyes, burkas, veils and hijabs -- or head coverings -- can symbolize oppression. But for many Muslim women, these garments represent an important religious and moral choice.

Ms. HASSAN: What the Koran talks about is the principle of modesty. That men and women should behave and dress in a modest way. Meaning by modesty, meaning don't act in an exhibitionist way.