Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Unlike others who have reviewed this book, I thought it was wonderful. I chose to read it as a memoir of an outsider's experience in my world. With this perspective, I found her ideas enlightening and interesting. While I do not agree with everything thing she says, I find Geraldine Brooks to be a very fine writer. I recommend this book highly.
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Summary: Observation without comprehension and understanding
Review: My review is very simple. In many ways, Brooks' book is enlightening. A minority of her examples should be given some definite thought, especially by Islamic scholars and jurists everywhere (case in point, is the issue of preventing women from attending men's soccer games in Saudi Arabia).Her observations on "Muslim culture"--as distinct from "Islam," the religion practiced by Prophet Muhammad--are keen. She manages to find internal inconsistencies within the laws of the nations whose rich, corrupt leaders purport to call "Islamic." However, Brooks, like so many other arrogant, Western "scholars," tries to interpret the Qur'an and Islamic history without even knowing Arabic. Scholars of Islam dedicate their lives to the extensive study of Arabic and the nuances of text and interpretation of the Qur'an, and only then do they arrive at conclusions and fatwas (legal opinions). To have skipped this essential part of understanding, Brooks is either extremely intelligent or extremely careless. I believe the latter is more likely. What is funny to me are the reviews by the established book critics that appear in the Amazon.com description for this book. Not one of those reviews has people who are knowledgeable about Islam. They claim this knowledge by voicing their support for Brooks' understanding of Islam. I find it ridiculous that the ignorant confirm the knowledge of ignorant. Such is often the case, however, with these Western journalists, whose avowed aim when it comes to Islam and Muslims, it seems, is simply to denigrate, dehumanize, and vilify. Never to understand, empathize, or sympathize. This is comical on one hand, horrific on another.
Rating: 
Summary: Another misguided view of Arab and Muslim women, BAD BOOK
Review: I do not recomend this book to any one, its too biast and narow minded and lacking the fundamental truth.
Rating:
Summary: Grossly and deliberatley innaccurate
Review: I read this book twice, and I still can't believe I spent money on it. Geraldine Brooks' book is nothing more than an attempt to "prove" the same, old tired allegations and stereotypes held against Islam and Muslims. It seemed to me that she not only hated Muslims, but Arabs and Persians (Iranians) as well. I can not understand the source for her hostility and unbridled sarcasm. I found her condescending attitude towards Muslim women (In the name of "Feminism") slighly disturbing. Despite the other reviews here by non Muslims who found it fascinating, I found this book to be highly innaccurate. (For reasons too lengthy to go into in this limited amt. of space.) Suffice to say that Brooks is a muckracking journalist, and not a scholar of religion. To use her work as a textbook on Islam is a mistake. Non Muslim readers of this book take note: you would be better served learning about Muslim women from the Qur'an, Hadith, and from Muslim women themselves. If you are so concerned about Muslim women, why not listen to what they themselves have to say, instead of what someone who obviously has no regard for them tells you?
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Summary: Define bias and stereotyping then read this book for a demo
Review: In this review I will explain that Ms. Geraldine Brooks fails to provide a meaningful view of Islamic women's life because as an outsider she maintains an antagonistic relationship with her subject. However being an outsider itself does not imply that one can not conduct successful study of a religion. That being said I would like to point out different ways in which she maintains adversarial attitude towards Islam. I will show that she used faulty methodology to study or observe Islam and its impact on women in the first place. Second when she decides to put her observations in writing, she doesn't focus on any single system and hence comes up with generalizations that can be misleading as to a religion as diverse and complex as Islam. Third she is too occupied, by her preconceived convictions and notions on life and freedom, to give a fair account. Last but not least she fails to pay respect to the religion at least in letter if not in spirit, which poses a serious limitation. In support of my view I shall elaborate each aspect of her antagonism with excerpts from her book. For the first objection we don't need to go too deep into reading this book. As the introduction to the book explains the fact that her visits and stays in the Middle Eastern muslim countries, which provide for the inspiration and information of this book, were for the purposes of journalism and not the study of Islam or muslim women. Her visits were infrequent to most places and her contacts were professional (as journalist) as opposed to personal. For example, she talks a lot about women in Iran, but she supports it only with account of two visits to Iran. First one of those visits was on a 48hr visa in the country. Another problem with that visit is that it was at a very unusual event (death of Ayatollah Khomeini) and in a quite formal setting (mourning). These two factors make this visit a very unlikely time for observation of every day Iranian life. Another example of her gross generalization based on little information is evident in the following excerpt: Almost every week of the Mehmoudzadehs' life contained some religious observance bound up in the rituals surrounding births, betrothals, marriages and funerals. During one week-long visit to the family, I learned a lot about Iranian life from two very different deaths. Here she makes a generalization about every week in Iranian life based on her one "week-long" visit to Iran. These two examples should make this discrepancy clear to the intelligent reader. Second problem with this book is then its vast coverage of many different cultures and then making generalizations from that for over 1billion people. She selectively takes examples from different cultures and applies them to Islam when in fact they are more part of the culture than religion. Like the example of cliterodectomy, that she herself says was an essentially African practice as she says: Widespread mutilation seems to have originated in Stone Age central Africa and traveled laws, down the Nile, into ancient Egypt. However at various instances she tries to hold Islam responsible for this practice, and associates it with Muslims in general by implication, for two reasons as she puts them: It wasn't until Arab-Muslim armies conquered Egypt in the eighth century that the practices spread out of Africa in a systematic way, parallel to the dissemination of Islam, reaching as far as Pakistan and Indonesia. This first reason is quite immature and it is like saying that Internet is responsible for pornography because it spreads it, when its not the Internet that is responsible but only the people doing it and Internet provides only a medium that can be used for many purposes. Similarly Islam harmonized and brought many cultures closer but then it was up to the people to exchange whatever cultural traditions they find attractive. So Islam cannot be at fault for providing with an ease to flow of information between cultures but only those people can be blamed who opted the wrong choices. Other reason she gives is the support of local preachers to this practice in Eritrea, again thing to remember here is that these preachers don't fall from the sky and are a production of the same society that encourages the practice of cliterodectomy and so they simply affirm their cultural beliefs, not religious by any proof. Then the third problem with this book is her indulgence in her own convictions about life and notions on life and freedom that inhibits her ability to think in a fair manner. One example is that she continuously assumes that Hijab (veil) is oppressive to women. Here is the irony however, most women that she knew either wore Hijab or started wearing it by their own choice. A good example will be her Egyptian friend Sahar who started wearing Hijab later in life by her choice as it says in the book: As the weeks passed, Sahar drifted deeper into new identity... Sahar seemed comfortable with her new self... Hijab, she said, gave her security on Cairo's bustling streets. Also she misses a key concept about Muslims after all her years of experience which is that, not every Muslim is fundamentalist and more importantly most fundamentalists are not a bunch of extremists. She is profoundly confused about the second part as she always mixes fundamentalists with extremists (who can be fundamentalist or anti-fundamentalist as well). Surprised? A good example of extremism against fundamental religious values is describe in the book: In 1935 the Shah's father had banned the Chador. Reza Shah wanted his country to look modern and he thought the ancient black cloak didn't. But devout women, especially the elderly couldn't suddenly make so drastic a change. In her memoir, Daughter of Persia, Sattarah Farman Farmaian writes of her mother's desolation. "When my mother had learned that she was to lose the age-old modesty of her veil, she was beside herself. She and all traditional people regarded Reza's order as the worst thing he had yet done -- worse than his attacking the rights of the clergy; and worst even than his confiscations and murders." Women who disobeyed the Shah's order and ventured into the streets veiled risked having their coverings ripped off and scissored by soldiers. Chador- wearing women were forbidden to use public transportation and denied entry into many stores. Rather than face such humiliation, many women simply stayed inside. This is the example of real oppression to which Iranian people revolted and opted practices that they passionately believed in, over the ones that were imported and superficial. She fails to comprehend such basic fact and keeps on trying to convince those women that if they observe Hijab then they must be oppressed. Last problem and the most serious one, stems from the previous problem of her preconceived notions and convictions, is her lack of respect for her subject. The very first chapter and her account of the "Muslim-world" ends with sarcastic remarks on last prophet of Muslims, prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), as she writes in her book: The reason for my sleepless night lay in that desert town. I couldn't check myself into a Saudi hotel room in the 1990's because thirteen hundred years earlier a Meccan named Muhammad [peace be upon him] had trouble with his wives. The actual reason was the Saudi law against giving rooms to lone women, to discourage prostitution, and her ignorance of local laws because it was not like her first time in that country. It's like getting locked up in America for driving without license because of your own ignorance of the law and then blaming it on Capitalism for its moneymaking laws. Including America most places don't consider ignorance of the law as a valid excuse. Second example of her pre-occupation of her own notions and lack of respect is shown in her account of Khomeini. She says first: Somehow I'd never imagined that the stoney-faced Ayatollah had a wife-... And I hadn't pictured him with the cute, giggling great-children who romped around us in the carpet-strewn courtyard. Then she is told by late-Ayatollah's daughter as to how kind he was to his wife and kids. Then she also finds out that he never made any money for himself and practiced humility and simplicity, she mentions: The carpets are all borrowed. The family doesn't own anything this good," explained one of the Revolutionary Guards who had worked as household help... Now here comes the strange part, which is her total disregard for every thing good she learned about this man and still see him under the same conviction as she did before, as she describes later in the book: Zahra invited me to a conference... titled "Aspects of His Highness Imam Khomeini's Personality". I studied the title with bemusement. The only aspects I was familiar with were his penchants for condemning novelists to death, dispatching young boys to the war front as human minesweepers and permitting little girls to be married off at the age of nine. This is all, good words, she could muster up for a great man on his funeral. Even the people in least civilized socie
Rating:
Summary: excellent, detailed documentary of women's life in the M.E.
Review: As a western muslim woman, I was apprehensive before choosing to read this book. I was concerned that it would be one of the many that confuses cultural misogyny with religion. Although the writer is not muslim (a rather secular Jew), she sincerely attempts to separate the typically anti-woman cultures in the Middle East from their association with Islam, which, as she freely states, gave women dignity and significant individual rights in the 7th century A.D. long before any western women were recognized as thinking, feeling, soul-possessing humans. She historically examines where the divide started - where culture became imbedded in religious thought and doctrines, and how that has adversely affected the life of women in the Middle East for far too long. She also clearly presents how current surges in religious extremism, basically sparked by Zionism in the Middle East, have further aggravated and lowered the social status of muslim women in the region. I am impressed by her research methods, which involved immersing herself in the culture, dressing according to local custom, and befriending muslim women in each country she visited. It is truly a gripping book, and a sad one. But because it is so well-written, it hits all the major issues on the nose and clarifies ones understanding of human rights, not just woman's rights. It is not, however, representative of Islam. Those readers interested in Islam should read books by the Morrocan muslim scholar Fatima Mernissi or more directly, the Qur'an itself. Nevertheless, I do have two objections. One is that she did not interview Western muslim women to compare them to the condition of their M.E. counterparts. My other objection is that she does not acknowledge that until the early 1900s, Western women arguably had even fewer rights and priviledges than their Middle Eastern counterparts. Less that 100 years have past since then, and look at women in the West today: surely, we finally have the right to vote, to control conception, to keep earnings, to marry at will, to divorce, etc., but at what cost? When a woman chooses to marry and keep her job in the West, how is she viewed? What is the divorce rate for such marriages? How do the children involved in that union fare? Does a woman feel liberated from her body or is she enslaved by the diet culture? All these questions are equally relevant for the person truly interested in the human condition of the late 20th century. As a feminist, however, I still believe the book deserves five stars, not just four. This is due to the incredible effort involved in writing it to the best of the ability of the author, Geraldine Brooks, and for overcoming so many of the prejudices Americans typically hold about the Arabs.
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Summary: Fundamentalism by any name mistreats women
Review: I am a Lutheran church librarian; I recently bought this book for our library and am very glad I did. American women (and men) need to have a better world view of all religions and cultural customs because we are not islands in this world. This book, with vignettes by many Arab women from desert nomad wives to Queen Noor of Jordan, gives an excellent overview of Muslim women's lives summed up best in the misused Biblical verse, "Women, submit to your husbands." Talk about men shifting the blame to women for their own irresponsibility! This book plaintively showed me how Arabian women live very lonely and often appalling lives based on forced submission to men, physical, mental and spiritual abuse, including female clitoridectomy, stoning, no educational opportunities, limited communication with others and forced limitation on travel. What a waste of 50% of the human potential of these countries. But, you know, I can't think of any fundamentalist group of any religion where women do not suffer the blame: loss of all rights to reproductive freedom, educational and career opportunities. This book is an illustration of what can happen when fundamentalists of any stripe create doubt, fear, exclusion and intolerance amongst the public. Use the minds that God gave you: think, read and ponder what we can do as a society for the good of the world and ALL its people. Stop the exclusion. Stop the blame and the hate. Women are not the cause of the world's problems, but we surely do have some wise solutions! Thanks, Geraldine Brooks, for the wonderful book! It has helped me grow!
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Summary: The book that sparked my interest in women in Islam
Review: Nine Parts of Desire was the first book I read about Muslim women. The book was riveting and I could not stop reading. Brooks tells the story in a way that makes the reader keep going. I have since read other books about Muslim women and I still find myself going back to this one because of her clear and concise explanations. I was impressed by the fact she did nothing to condemn the religion of Islam. I found that the biggest threat to American democracy is not from Islam but rather the radical fundamentalists in any religion. This book opens your eyes to the suffering of other people in other countries.
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Summary: Fascinating read - and not just for women
Review: Not only did I find this book profoundly interesting and thought-provoking, but so did my fiance and his best friend (also male). None of us could put it down. I'd particularly recommend this book for anyone in a reading club - you should have lots of interesting discussions! An excellent book for anyone with interest in cultures and cross-cultural (mis)communications - and I don't just mean Islamic cultures.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly compelling and chilling
Review: Geraldine Brook's reporting in "Nine Parts of Desire" weaves a chilling tale of repression, misogyny, religious fervor and fear. A compelling examination of the roots of Islam and the evolution of a religion that uses its "laws" to control and repress feminine sexuality, energy and intuition. What struck me most was the sense of fear running through her interviews with the men in power. To justify their "laws" against female freedoms they cite the Koran, interpreting it to support their own power, projecting a collective shadow onto women who in their minds embody evil itself. This book offers valuable insight into the origins of Islamic belief, and the subsequent abuse of the religion by the new wave of fundamentalists. It is still difficult for me to comprehend a religious belief system that encourages murder and misogyny in the name of a beloved God. I remain chilled to the bone by this book, several days after completing it.
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