Review: Nine Parts of Desire (The Hidden World of Islamic Women) by Geraldine Brooks

Goodreads rating: 4.04/5

My rating: 4/5

Geraldine Brooks was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and 'Nine Parts of Desire' is a compilation of the stories she had collected during the 6 years she had covered the Middle East. She highlights the controversial lives of Muslim women and how extremists have exploited the Quran as a means to justify female oppression.

Did you know that there was a time during which women in Iran risked having their hijabs ripped off or scissored by soldiers as per the Shah's preference for a modern look within the country? There was even a time when men in Jordan believed that beating their wives was a God-given right. It is insane how much women were manipulated and controlled for the sake of male pride and for what men believed was for Islam. Brooks was fortunate to speak with several women of power during her time in the Middle East such as Queen Noor of Jordan, her female advisers and one of the daughters of Ayatollah Khomeini. It is from such women that she was able to extract stories and write about controversial topics regarding Muslim women such as clitoridectomy and the inability to leave one's home without the permission of their husbands or fathers. The use of the Quran to fulfill men's desires was so backward to the point that Toujan Faisal, a TV presenter that ran for a seat in the Jordan parliament was attacked by men and branded a heretic for trying to end domestic violence by justly quoting the Quran. Men were given the ability to misuse Islam's holiest texts for their benefit but when women did, it was either ignored or deemed wrong.

Brook's wrote her first book in simple language for anybody to easily engage through which she was able to paint vivid pictures of the conditions in which Muslim women had to live in the past. Other than gaining knowledge of the history of Islamic women, I am now able to appreciate the more lenient world that I live in. Women are now allowed to drive in Saudi and to leave their homes without requiring a permission slip from their spouses or fathers, thank God I was not born during the difficult times that Brooks highlighted in her book.

Brooks allocated a topic per chapter and one of the topics she covered was reverts. I feel like there are so many other stories that she could have collected from reverts but she limited herself to friends that converted to Muslims to wed Muslim men. I was hoping to read more about whether reverts were wrongfully judged or if it was more difficult to embrace Islam compared to how easy it is now. There was also a whole chapter on Queen Noor called "A Queen" which I skipped after reading just half of. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of history and easily got bored with features of political history that I felt I would not benefit from knowing. Other than that, the book reads as an Islamic feminism book with tragic stories of the injustices that Islamic women experienced.

For Brooks' first book, it was quite a bold move to expose the male dominance in Islam within the Middle East, especially considering stories she mentioned about other journalists getting life threats for writing similar pieces. It was especially heartwarming to read about her effort to strike against the ban of belly dancing in Egypt. I'm not a fan of belly dancing and I'm not sure if it's even permissible in Islam but I'm glad to know that Brooks stood up for the women she was writing about in her own way.

By writing this book, Brooks was able to shed light on the ugly result of Islamic extremism and if reading a real life horror story with women as the main cast is what you're interested in, then this is the book for you.