Sultan to as a sultanate ( "). The term is distinct from king ( "), despite both referring to a sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular "king", which is used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. A feminine form of "sultan", used by Westerners, is Sultana or Sultanah and this title has been used legally for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. However, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses "sultan" for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar—which is influenced by Persian
Female labor force in the Muslim world weak education infrastructure for women, low levels of economic development, or simply capital-intensive resource development. The latter characteristic is probably given how many majority Muslim nations are net oil exporters. Table 4: Percentage of Female Laborers as Employer Source: International Labour Organization Unemployment rates among women in majority Muslim countries are high. When aggregated by region, North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, the three regions with the most and highest density of Muslims in the world, have the highest rates of female unemployment in the world. In North Africa, 17% of females are unemployed and 16% of women