Review by Booklist Review
During her six years covering the Middle East for the Wall Street Journal, Brooks sought to find out how Muslim women feel about their societies' attitudes toward women. What she discovered is sometimes astonishing, sometimes shocking, but always fascinating. Taking on the hijab (the Muslim woman's black veil) herself, Brooks talked with women throughout the Islamic world, reexamined the Koran, spent time with fundamentalist and feminist alike, and emerged with a deeper understanding of the religion as one that once empowered but now cripples women. She found, for instance, that Iran is one of the better Islamic countries for women, Saudi Arabia the worst; that the hijab can be ~strangely liberating; that enjoyment of their sexuality is an inherent right for Muslim women; and that to be a feminist under Islam calls for a daily form of courage almost incomprehensible to the Western mind. Brooks is a wonderful writer and thinker; the observations she makes and the conclusions she reaches open both our eyes and our minds to understanding Muslim women anew. ~--Mary Ellen Sullivan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
``Almighty God created sexual desires in ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women and one to men,'' explained Ali, founder of Islam's Shiite branch. In this powerful and enlightening report, Muslim women emerge from under their black chadors-often hiding jeans or high-fashion clothing-as a horrifyingly oppressed class slowly liberating themselves from the worst practices but still adhering to the basic values of Islam. Drawing on six years as the Wall Street Journal's Middle East reporter, Brooks presents stunning vignettes of women she has met-the American-born Queen Noor of Jordan, Hamas supporters in Gaza, Ayatollah Khomeini's daughter, Egyptian belly dancers, Saudi housewives, Iranian athletes, secretaries, divorcées, foreigners married to Muslim husbands, activists. Brooks carefully distinguishes mysogyny and oppressive cultural traditions from what she considers the true teachings of the Koran and the liberating philosophies of Muhammad. In some Muslim countries, external events and a small but burgeoning women's movement have somewhat liberalized the marital contract and opened up educational opportunities, some jobs and political offices to women, but genital mutilation continues, even for Muslim women in the U.S. Brooks hopes the U.S. will consider gender persecution a reason to offer asylum. Literary Guild selection; author tour. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A well-crafted, absorbing account of Islamic women's lives as seen through the eyes of a secular-minded, Australian-born feminist journalist. Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent Brooks describes with sensitivity and clarity her conversations and relationships with Islamic women, from the blue-jean-clad, American-born queen of Jordan to a devout Palestinian who shares her abusive husband with another woman in a four-room hovel with 14 children. Many of the obstacles she describes are well known: Some Islamic women are not allowed to show flesh or pray out loud in public (their voices are too arousing and could provoke unholy thoughts in men); many professions are closed to women; and severe sexual double standards still exist. However, Brooks's lively interpretations of Islamic tradition offer a useful challenge to Western stereotypes. According to her, Mohammed's teachings on the role of Islamic women, not to mention his living example, are complex and contradictory, often in direct opposition to the gender politics of today's extreme fundamentalists. Unfortunately, the author's naive faith in her own culture's progress allows her to make some rather arrogant statements, such as, ``Like most Westerners, I always imagined the future as an inevitably brighter place, where a kind of moral geology will have eroded the cruel edges of past and present wrongs. But in Gaza and Saudi Arabia...the future is a place that looks darker every day.'' Stemming from a similar blind spot, perhaps, is the short shrift given to Middle Eastern feminist activists and scholars. Few organized women's movements are discussed, and Brooks's treatment of Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi's persecution by the radical Islamic group Jihad and the Egyptian government totally overlooks the influence she has had; many believe Saadawi and other feminists are responsible, for example, for the Egyptian government's partial banning of clitoridectomy. Nonetheless, Brooks is a fine storyteller, though at times her tales feel incomplete. (Author tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
