Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995)

The hidden world of Islamic women. How the Koran is twisted to support the idea of women being behind the curtain, in seclusion. ( )

A fascinating first-hand perspective on women in Islam. Along with the author, I struggled throughout with the line between culture and human rights - it's pretty blurry, and I appreciate her effort to separate out what is in the Koran and Mohammed's true intent from what has evolved in interaction with various Islamic cultures. Educational, well-written, and thought-provoking. ( )

(Bookcrossing, 09 October 2011)

A very worthwhile book that takes a deep and personal look at the hidden and often surprising world of Islamic women from different countries and regimes. The parts examining the basis of some of the rules and regulations in everyday life when the Koran and Hadiths were put together are very interesting. But however valuable it is as a historical document, it has become just that, in my opinion, as it was published in 1995 and worked very much in terms of a coverage of current issues, so it is rather outdated now. A shame, as a lot of effort clearly went into it. One can't help but wonder what became of the women featured in this book. ( )

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks. Epiphany library section 7C: The Church in the World, Society/Human Rights/Justice. This prize-winning journalist published this book in 1995 about the lives of Islamic women in Islamic-dominated middle eastern nations. While some regimes have become less repressive toward women since that time (women in Saudi Arabia can now book hotel rooms unaccompanied by a male family member), other nations are still very repressive as their leaders rise and fall, or chaos reigns.
Brooks first gives us background information about Mohammed and his own life – his marriage to an older businesswoman – and his Koranic writings concerning relationships between Islamic women and men.
Then she introduces us to actual women from Islamic nations, from American-born Queen Noor of Jordan to college professors in Gaza, doctors in Saudi Arabia, and outlawed belly dancers in Egypt. While some women in Islamic countries are married, have children, are educated and have careers, Brooks introduces us to many more women repressed by Islamic law. The way these women dress, speak, worship, are educated, marry, and raise families are all designed to keep women at home. If they are in public they are chaperoned by male family members, and dressed to be anything from modest to completely invisible. Brooks discusses the Islamic laws concerning polygamy and divorce, female mutilation, honor-killings, lack of educational and job opportunities, and the disparities in educational opportunities between these women’s sons and daughters.
There are very different interpretations of sharia (religious) law depending on whether the woman’s nation conforms to Shi’ite or Sunni Islam, and differing degrees of enforcement depending on how strong the “religious police” are. The variety is bewildering, and a woman’s chances for fulfillment, self-determination, and happiness are extremely dependent upon the nation she is born in, and even the decade in which she is born. At times, these laws persecute even wealthy and royal women. It is very wearing, stressful and frightening to live with this constant repression and insecurity. Many of these women feel infantilized – treated like babies.
Brooks exposes the hidden lives of Islamic women and the cultural, political, and religious forces that shape their lives. Her mix of historical perspective, laser-like observation, and intimacy with real women willing to share their lives make this a book you need to read. If nothing else, it also shows why the separation of church and state is so important to a healthy democracy. ( )

Geraldine Brooks, before she became a novelist, was a journalist, assigned to the Middle East in the late 1980s to early 1990s (this book was published in 1995). Her husband Tony Horowitz accompanied her, fashioned himself as a freelance journalist, and immediately jumped into adventures: tracking smugglers with the camel corps in Egypt, crewing on a supply boat in the Persian Gulf. She was forbidden. Eventually, she realized that the one thing she could do that he could not was talk to women. This book is anecdotes from those years, encounters and observations and conversations, wherever she happened to be. The result is scattered and impressionistic, informative in a general sense because of the variety within a region that we tend to lump together. She begins with the veil. "At first, I had naively assumed that hijab would at least free women from the tyranny of the beauty industry." she writes, but this is not the case, because a distinction is made between public and private, and, as one woman tells her, "Islam encourages us to be beautiful for our husbands." She watches an Eritrean doctor perform a gruesome operation to repair consequences of genital mutilation, a cultural practice that was there before Christianity and Islam, and was tolerated by both; a key to eradication is education, so women can read the Koran and see that it commands no such thing. She accompanies a western educated Saudi friend to visit his uncle, a Wahhabi imam who meets with the men of his village every Friday after prayers. He has never before spoken to a woman outside his family. How can he counsel the women then? "They put their problems to him through their husbands, of course." says her friend. "But what if their husband is their problem?" she asks. This possibility had not occurred to either man. She wrangles and invitation to the Islamic Women's Games, where a father is allowed to see his daughter run in competition for the first time, thanks to "the world's first track suit-hijab". She learns to belly dance in Egypt, and in protest of fundamentalist calls for a ban on this ancient tradition, searches for "a venue modest enough to match my talents", where the manager accepts her into the show for an evening. These are revealing glimpses, with no single simple conclusion. Some women renounce their former lives and take on the veil. Some women negotiate space for themselves within the constraints. Some women press for political and social changes. Now several weeks after reading, I do not retain any especially profound or pronounced memories, but I am appreciative of the reminder to look below the surface.

(read 16 Aug 2011)