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 ventures. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia have the highest rates of female self-employment with 86.7%, 77.9%, and 68.3%, respectively. Very few women are involved in the formal labor market in Pakistan but more than three fourths of them are self-employed. Nearly half of working women in Turkey are self-employers with 49% of female workers operating their own private enterprise or services. Female economic activity and participation is widely distributed across the Muslim world. The female labor force participation rate, the ratio of female workers to male workers, the wage security of women, and other elements of formal economic activity cover a