Customer comments on this selection.
 Beyond The Veil
This book really went a long went towards me understand the underpinings of the male/female dynamics in Morocco, a moderate Islamic country. Having had virtually no exposure to Islam it was quite informative and an interesting read.
 Questionable sources and faulty premise
After reading this book, I have to admit that Mernissi has the ability to convey her message clearly and intellectually. However, I'm most impressed by how she uses secondary and tertiary sources to make some of her strongest points to support her thesis (that female sexuality is suppressed in Islam), even using suspicous translations of the Qur'an and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (weak, at best). This is a talent shared also by Fox News, and writers like her are not unpopular among feminists and those who distrust Islam or know little about it.
As a Muslim woman raised in the West, my experiences are obviously much different than Mernissi's (I, too, have a problem with the Morocccan establishment's interpretation of Islam, but I don't follow Morocco's version of Islam. I use primary sources). She admits that her grandmother was captured and basically used as a concubine, resulting in the birth of Mernissi's mother. Tragic, and I uphold Mernissi's attitude towards such an injustice. However, her anecdotal experience is also used as her "research." To automate such practices to Islam's true teachings is unscholarly and lacks credibility.
Also, to use a (faulty) argument that Islam's purpose is to oppress women (and in particular, their sexuality) is to ignore the fact that a man's sexuality is also oppressed. That is part and parcel of a religion that upholds chastity of both partners, not to suppress them, but to uphold dignity, self-worth/esteem, and uphold the rights of children (to know their paternity), which she largely ignores. Polygamy, although allowed in certain situations in Islam, is not practiced widely in the Muslim world. Upholding concubines is even more questionable in Islam, yet she uses weak/faulty premises like this throughout the entire book.
The most important element that Mernissi ignores is that any true religion is sent to uphold the rights of all individuals, not just the nobility/upper class (who she forgets to mention are the women who practiced unlimited sexual rights in pre-Islamic Arabia, not the average woman, who was considered little more than property and was bought and sold until Islam forbade it). Every woman under Islam is given the right to choose who they marry, to marry at all, to divorce, to own and inherit property, to vote/freedom of expression, to work and to lead, both inside and outside the home, and yes, to be sexually fulfilled. All within the boundaries which every religion has. Where are the males who resent her implication that an "ideal" society would afford women to choose their partners at will and deny the right to paternity if she becomes pregnant? Where is the justice in that argument?
A true religion has a higher purpose than sexual fulfillment/immediate gratification by any means necessary. Yet she doesn't mention these agreed upon principles that uphold the rights of all humankind, and instead, uses weak evidence to support a faulty thesis.
Again, I'm impressed by her ability to do this, at the very least.
 Unveiling an Inquisitive Mind
Wow! This book really raises some serious, thought-provoking questions regarding female sexual status, and sexual self-determination in Arab-Muslim societies. If I had read this book in the 70s - when it was first written and published - I would have really thought of it as a classic work, but I wasn't born then.
Yet, the book is incredibly outdated. Mernissi does a good job in questioning the general notions (and misconceptions) widespread in her days about religion and the inferiority of women. However, she is out of touch with the contemporary revolutionary ideas that claimed Islam back from the selfish authority of the benighted "Mullahs," who misinterpted Islam out of ignorance, or to fulfill their own political agendas (as still happening in some Muslim countries, wherein Muslim women are subjugated and denied basic rights, such as education.)
Working at the courts in my conservative Gulf country, I witnessed cases in which women "self-determinedly" divorced their husbands, who could not satisfy them sexually. (Lol, awww! I can't believe I'm saying this!)
Even with some historical and Islamic inaccuracies (for instance, many hadiths - Prophetic traditions - quoted by Mernissi have been outruled as inauthentic by contemporary Islamic scholars, thus invalidating many of her arguments and theories), I found this book to be very interesting, and it sheds light - though indirectly, and perhaps unintentionally - on Moroccan history and culture. The chapter on Mothers-in-Law was especially amusing!
It is unfair to criticize the book without taking into consideration the fact that it was written decades ago, and until the latest edition (1985), it must have been current. Instead of complaining about the book and its outdated content, I think I'll just go ahead and write a well-researched book on the same topic!
 First book by a Muslim feminine writer
When this book originally appeared, I did write a review and got in published in print media. In her work, I was happy to have been introduced for the first time from a pen of (western, muslim, voracious) female writer as to how this gender looked at Islam. I am glad that Fatima continues to provide interesting insights, and she is striving to keep people informed on the subject.
Very compelling, just a bit too academic
This book is like going through someone else's medicine cabinet. A fascinating look into the homes and bedrooms of the Middle East from a scholarly feminist perspective. The only problem is, it's a bit too scholarly to be a really quick and concise read. Still, Well worth buying.
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