Two very different women pursue the same goals: democracy and equal rights. One ran for political office for the first time in 2007; the other has been politically active for nearly forty years. One lives in the remote south of Mauritania, the other in Rabat, capital of Morocco. Khadija Diallo hopes to have a say in the future of her city in the Sahara. Latifa Jbabdi endured arrest and torture many time over before being elected to the Moroccan parliament. Both stand for a new generation of northern African women. Neither has found it easy to reconcile their political ambitions with religious mores in their Islam-based cultures.