Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15551 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Guardian
'Brooks' stories of queens, athletes, rebels, wives and soldiers
are harrowing and moving'

Susan Faludi
'Fascinating, meticulously reported, and elegantly written'

Ann Treneman, Observer
'She takes us behind the veils . . . It is in her descriptions of
her meetings that the book excels'

Customer Reviews

Well written and well worth a read
I bought this on a whim after a trip to Egypt that left me confused about what I was seeing at home and abroad in regard to women in Islam. Easy to read and not at all 'dry' the text is written by a journalist who I feel has avoided simply reporting stereotypes (as one reviewer has alleged) while not shying away from any truth in assumptions those ignorant to Islam or the Middle East may have made. She talks to progressive Muslims as well as hard-liners and though perhaps it is clear she supports a more progressive view I think she represents both sides with care.

I found it a fascinating read and certainly something I would recommend in a time when fear and ignorance are prominent in the way people react to a religion they don't necessarily understand.

A Fascinating Read
Using her six-year experience in the Middle East, Geraldine Brooks wrote her first book entitled "Nine Parts of Desire," which was published in 1995. The author spent sex years researching the status and the role of women in several Middle East countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The book is broken into thirteen chapters, which describes the journey and the observation of the author in the Middle East countries. She writes about the history of Muhammad and his wives, the purpose for the veil and hijab, the Islamic marriages, the women in military, politics, business, and entertainment, and the author's experience with Queen Noor in Jordan.

In part, this book explores the women's social status as defined by the Islamic culture and the words of the prophet Muhammad. Since Muhammad's death, the Islamic culture has been defining women according to their Koran, which became part of Islamic law (p. 190). The Muslim traditions and customs, such as hidden faces, hairs, or exposed skin of women, seems to came from the book of Koran that expresses Muhammad's accounts with his wives and his revelations. The Islamic laws seem to require women to wear hijab, cloth covering all of their skin expect for hands and eyes, and restricted social interaction between men and women who are not related by blood. In this book, Brooks mentions that the prophet, Muhammad, had a revelation from Allah that required women to be put in seclusion and to wear hijab when in public to avoid the sight of men who might feel temptation or desire to them for their own (p. 4-5, 20-1, 83). The Koran's accounts of Muhammad and his wives seem to show examples of why women needed to be covered and how this gives men ideas of being pure-hearted.

Throughout this book, one can comprehend why the repression against women became intensified in the Islamic societies in the 1970s to the 1990s through the defined social status of women in Islamic culture, Muhammad's interpretation of women's status, the rise of the fundamentalism and its mission, and their reasons for repressing women. With her extensive experience interviewing Muslim women in the Middle East, Brooks has written a fascinating book which expresses an unique perspective about the lives and tradition of Muslim women of the Islamic culture.

Eye opening!
I started to read this book while staying with friends in Cairo. It really opened my eyes to so much of the truth and myth about women in Islam and also to what is or is not actually written in the Koran. Absolutely facinating and a must for anyone who wants to broaden their understanding of the world we live in.