Rating: 
Summary: Excellent documentation of life for Middle Eastern women
Review: This is a horrifying look at life in a variety of so-called Islamic countries. Once a liberating religion of 7th-century Arabia, Islam was almost immediately taken over by extremists upon the death of the Prophet Muhammed. Today modern-day Islamic countries are cowed into submission by Islamic fundamentalists, and it should come as no surprise to anyone with any experience with religious fundamentalism that women once again get the short end of the stick.Much of what passes for Islamic practice in modern-day Islamic countries is supported by neither the Koran nor the hadiths (anecdotes and teachings) of the Prophet. The author travelled all over the Middle East and presents both the good side and the bad side of Islamic practice today. She points out that life is not as repressive in Iran as it is in say, Saudi Arabia. She shows how the Palestinians used to be at the forefront of womens' rights in the Middle East and how they've since been consumed by the fundamentalists. She spoke to the women, the mullahs, the bureaucrats, the husbands--a wide variety of people in various cultures. She questions why the Moslems have adopted every misogynistic practice, from veiling to polygamy to female genital mutilation, from their pagan conquests as they spread Islam throughout that part of the world. This is an excellent overview of the status of women in Moslem countries today. Amnesty International, take note...
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: This is a great book whether or not you think you're interested in the subject material. It's an engrossing account of the situation of women in the middle east which is enlightening, entertaining, and makes one appreciate the freedom of western society. (cf. Fatima Mernissi books for a more scholarly version of the same topic.) I couldn't put this down. It would be great if books like this were required reading in high schools (along with a variety of literature exploring the different cultures and mores of the world)...
Rating:
Summary: Life behind the veil
Review: I heard about this book at a slide show given by my college alumnae club which I attended with my mother (also an alum), and we were curious enough to pick up a copy. Who would have guessed that a book on such a subject could be so completely riveting? It was absolutely impossible to put down; I devoured it in a day. And that was no fluke--my best friend had the same experience. The book is as much about the author's search for an identity for Muslim women that she could understand as it is about the women themselves, and her realization that they are as varied as women everywhere is only one of the discoveries she made and wrote about so eloquently. Ms. Brooks is a gifted writer, but she is even more a gifted observer and faithful chronicler of what she sees, even if it isn't what she wanted or hoped to see. Her search for a Muslim feminism was largely in vain, but her exploration of why this might be so was careful, detailed, and very moving. She speaks strongly, for example, about practices harmful to women which have become associated with Islam but have their origins elsewhere. It was an honor to share her insights, and I would highly recommend this book to just about anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Lost Any Desire I Had to Monitor Others' (Sex) Lives
Review: I read this book hoping to understand women in Muslim countries better, and to overcome some of my prejudices. It didn't have that affect, but it was a book worth reading for sure. I think the main thing I brought away from the book is the similarity between radical fundamentalists of any stripe. It certainly pointed out to me the dangers of a theocracy...of sinful people trying to figure out God's agenda (which can only be in light of their own?). It is interesting to me that God gives people far more freedom than people purporting to represent Him would allow.
Rating: 
Summary: This book fascinated me the way one watches a car crash.
Review: This book was very interesting. I read it as part of a very white anglo book club. I highly recommend it for book clubs as it really gets some great discussion going. I hope that there are some isalmic women who see themselves in this book and decide to change. What a sad lifestlye however, the American fifties housewife was not much more enlightened. Change takes time.
Rating:
Summary: Who are the women of Islam?
Review: brooks infiltrates the hidden world of islam through the women in the middle east. she offeres alternative interpretations of muhammed's words, and points out how oppression of women through male dominance is inconsistent with islam in its purest form. her accesible writing style opened up new doors for understanding the middle east and our muslim sisters. a must read
Rating:
Summary: A great book on Women in Islam
Review: A very interesting read for anyone interested in the cause of women in Islam. Some might find it biased - the author makes her opinion very clear and her view is not impartial. However, she makes some very good parallels between the situation in the Prophet's time and what it is today - and this is not a pretty picture. The testimonials of women is various countries of the Middle East are very enlightening and some make the situation of women in those countries very frightening. It is also interesting to see some of these women's view towards their culture, their society and the progress made by Muslim women. It is probably one of the best book, if not the best book I have read on women in Islam and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Experience of Our Sisters
Review: This is an exquisitely written book. Brooks has great talent for pulling the reader into the mind of the people she tells about, and especially, I found as a man, pulling you into the minds and lives of women. I found myself empathizing with the women in ways that only real life can provide. It is amazing what Brooks has experienced, but it is far more amazing what the women she tells of have experienced. Brooks writes honestly and directly about the good and bad of Islam, and how it influences women. She doesn't pull any punches, but also is not writing to denigrate, as she finds aspects of official and folk Islam that harm women, and aspects that help women. She speaks of the positive attitude Islam has towards sexuality, being largely uncorrupted by the Greek dualism that invaded later Christianity, so that, within marriage, Muslims are encouraged to celebrate the gift of God in sex. Indeed, this provides the title of the book, as Ali, the 4th Khalifa, speaks of how sexual desire is 1/10th the man's, and 9/10ths the womans. Of course, this provides later motive to sequester women, put them in hijab, and restrict them, so that the "ever-devouring vagina", as later writers speak of it, does not overcome the men around them. Since Brooks relies primarily on her experiences, with what she's seen with her own eyes and heard with her own ears, she is hard to argue with. This is the plight of many women in the Muslim world. But lest we think these are limited experiences of one Western woman talking with a few Arab and Persian women scattered in a few countries, Brooks has also done extensive research to intersperse between her stories- relying on the Qur'an, Hadith, Ijtihad, and Muslim history. But mostly, on women's experiences- for, let's be honest, the perspective of women is largely missing from the official sources, as it is in most religions- with notable exceptions like the wonderful Hadiths of Aisha. Most of which were discarded by early Islamic jurists, as Brooks points out. One regret, is that there is not more here about the countries of North Africa, particularly, Morocco, with the exception of one paragraph paying tribute to that great Moroccan feminist, Fatima Mernissi. But of course, this book is about Brooks' experiences, not a research text, and her journalistic experience was much more centered on the Middle East. I found one of Brooks' most powerful arguments to be on issues like FGM, Female Genital Mutilation. She shares how Muslims say it's not authorized or encouraged in the Qur'an. How it's not only Muslims who do it, but some African Christians. I've hear this many times before myself. They're quite right. But Brooks brings up the sapient question- why isn't there more spoken against it from the minbar? Why are 20% of Muslim women in areas where this is practiced? If Islam is a religion that supports women, or if there are at least some aspects of it that are positive towards women (as I believe there are), why isn't there more said publicly about the plight of women, on many issues, to change things, to encourage women's emancipation, using the wealth of resources? Why is Mernissi such a lone worker in the night?
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and balanced view of Muslim women's lives
Review: Ms. Brooks is a talented writer and it was a pleasure to read her work. Her six years living in the Middle East and associating with Muslim women from all levels of society and in many countries gave her fascinating insights into everyday Muslim women's lives. Some reviewers here did not like the book because Brooks expresses negative opinions on some practices in Islamic countries; perhaps they are expecting a glossing over of these things in order to shed nothing but a rosy light on women's lives in Islam? In fact, this book presented some aspects of Muslim women's lives in a far more positive light than I expected. For instance, I read Azar Nafisi's book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" before reading this book, and was surprised to find Brook's examples of life for women in Iran to be far less bleak than what Nafisi showed (Nafisi's book is also great and I recommend it). Brooks also made Khomeni seem far less of a monster than my previous impression of him was. I thought she treated Islam with great respect and gave her analysis on things often very objectivley; when she casts things in a negative light it is because they are truly brutal and inhumane. I am hoping she will write more on this subject in light of all the recent events in the Middle East over the past 10 years.
Rating:
Summary: Women in Islam
Review: This book is an excellent source for learning about the role of women in Islam. Ms. Brooks combines research, anecdote, and experience to explain the complicated story. It was fascinating to read actual parts of the Koran which held that women were to be treated fairly and kindly; in fact the Koran deemed that women were to be allowed to run businesses, own land etc. To see how that has been thwarted in much of the world was just heart-wrenching. But Ms. Brooks goes way beyond the "to veil or not to veil" question; she gives a dramatic glimpse into health care, athletics, marriage, and war from a woman's perspective. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about a complicated issue.
|
