The Status of Women in Islam
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4.3 • 67 Ratings
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Publisher Description
In the West, Islam is believed to be the symbol of the subordination of women par excellence. In order to understand how firm this belief is, it is enough to mention that the Minister of Education in France, the land of Voltaire, has recently ordered the expulsion of all young Muslim women wearing the veil from French schools! A young Muslim student wearing a headscarf is denied her right of education in France, while a Catholic student wearing a cross or a Jewish student wearing a skullcap is not. The scene of French policemen preventing young Muslim women wearing headscarves from entering their high school is unforgettable. It inspires the memories of another equally disgraceful scene of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in 1962 standing in front of a school gate trying to block the entrance of black students in order to prevent the desegregation of Alabama's schools.
Customer Reviews
Informative!
I enjoyed reading this book and learning the differences between religions and similarities. I encourage any woman to read this!
Very good!!!
I enjoyed reading this book! It did use Christian and Jewish comparisons to show the differences but overall it was truthful and I can better understand Islamic traditions. I appreciate the author's honesty in recognizing that people have gone away from the Quran as many Christians have moved in a direction away from the Bible. As a Christian African American I found that I have experienced many of the problems that Islam may offer a solution to. I'm not saying I'm converting but we as a community may need to consider some of these Islamic ways.
Misunderstanding
This book is the avocation of the victimization of young mainly Arabic Muslim women in the context of French social mores regarding the nature of maidenhood, individuality, freedom and responsibility. It offers the Muslim justification for cultural mores displaced from their homeland into a place and culture that is alien to them without a full appreciation of that culture--but with enough understanding to accentuate perceived hypocrisies. Nevertheless, it argues for some degree of female autonomy -- enough so to garner complaints from reactionary Arabic men. So good for her. It is up to the reader to decide how much the author recognizes the contradictions in female autonomy, whether of maidenhood or motherhood, implied in cultural norms of 'Arabic' female rights and behavior. But it is obviously clear that she believes in female education --against the most persistent forms of male hegemony and destructive paternalism.