In 1975, Fatima Mernissi’s first book, Beyond the Veil, was published, and it was revolutionary. Mernissi broke down the ethnocentric stereotypes Western society had developed towards Islam, especially Muslim women. She distinguished Muslim women from the homogenized group of ‘third- world women’ that Western feminism had created. Mernissi also fought to overcome Western assumptions that Muslim women were helpless victims of both their religion and the men of their religion. Western stereotypes ostracized Muslim men who did not fit the white, masculine, hegemonic mold dominating the first world society, developing racist ideas towards a religion that was believed to oppress women.