Overview:
“Frank, enraging, and captivating.”
—The New Yorker
“Powerful and enlightening...Brooks presents stunning vignettes of Muslim women...and carefully distinguishes misogyny and oppressive cultural traditions from what she considers the true teachings of the Koran.”
—Publishers Weekly
“There has been nothing finer on the subject from a Western observer...she looks at it from the heart...mixing historical perspective with piercingly observed journalism.”
—Newsday
“Avoids both the sensational and the stereotypical...insightful...a valid, entertaining account of women in the Muslim world.”
—New York Times Book Review
“A rare look at a significant segment of the world's population that literally has been cloaked in mystery for generations.”
—Seattle Times
Let me tell you something may already know about me—I lived in Morocco for a while as a Peace Corps volunteer and I found it difficult, as a white, Western, blonde woman, to live in a Muslim culture among Moroccans. I came back from Morocco more perplexed about their culture than before I left for my journey, trying to understand the “how” and “what” of their culture—particularly with the women of their culture. So I went to the bookstore and picked up a ton of books on women and Islam, and Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks was one of them.
This book was written about a decade and a half ago—published in 1995 by journalist Geraldine Brooks. Brooks covered the Middle East in the late 80s and early 90s and wrote of her experiences with Muslim women in this book. In each chapter, she speaks about different aspects of the lives of Muslim women: brides, voting rights, and women fighting in war. She mostly discusses her experiences from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Egypt and Palestine.
I liked this book—I was fascinated with her experiences of traveling and meeting women in those countries. It wasn’t until 1/3 through the book that we discover that Brooks is Jewish. While the religion of the author shouldn’t be that important, considering that she is writing about Muslim women is very, very important because Muslims and Jews have a long history of conflict. Brooks tells readers that if anyone asked her what her religion was, she would always tell the truth. While I think that’s a great motto, I don’t think that would work nowadays.
I wonder how Nine Parts of Desire Brooks would have written this book had it been written right after 9/11. While Brooks definitely had her own opinions about Islam and its treatment of women, she kept it to the bare minimum. To contrast, over a year ago I read a book called In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta Ahmed. Ahmed, British-born Pakistani physician almost had too many opinions for me to really understand the Muslim culture and its effects on women. Ahmed’s book rubbed me the wrong way in that regard.
Brooks, however, did her research of Muslim culture and the Koran. My only part that I thought was lacking, and perhaps a hope that Brooks will do one day, is update this book to the twenty-first century when the culture clashes between Islam/Western culture are deep, deeper than they were 15 years ago.
One minor error that I found was the map of the Middle East that she showed in the beginning (an example of the countries she covered can be shown on this map). When I took a class in college called Women in Islam, the professor made us take a map quiz at the beginning on all of the countries of the Middle East–she included countries in North Africa like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, etc. I’m not sure if there is a reason why some people leave these countries out of the “Middle East” but I wanted to give you a proper map of the Middle East, and couldn’t find one on the web.
Anyone interested in reading about Muslim culture and women would enjoy this read. As I mentioned previously, it isn’t overly emotional with opinions about Islam which is why I really liked this book. It’s so hard to find books these days that aren’t extremely opinionated about Muslim culture and its treatment of women.
Emily Heroy
ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Sincerelyours
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
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