Book review

I was really excited when I started at USAID to discover that they have a library - full of technical books about development, as well as novels and movies set in other countries.  Basically, my version of heaven, except with bad fluorescent lighting.  And, to make it even better, we can request books if they don't have something we want.

So, a month or two ago, I requested a book about feminist movements within Islam, which they ordered for me. And then, the secret catch came: they wanted me to write a book review about it for the library newsletter, so other people will want to read it too.

So, since I did all that work, and it was a pretty good and interesting book, I thought I'd post my review here.  (Many thanks to my editor who made it sound much more nice and literary than when I first wrote it).


Review of Paradise Beneath Her Feet by Isobel Coleman

 

Much of the discussion about Islam in the West today seems to assume an incompatibility between Western values and Islam: from a religious defense of violence, to the subjugation of women, to the near sacralization of domestic abuse, Islam is often portrayed as backward and repressive.  But in Paradise Beneath Her Feet Isobel Coleman showcases an Islam which not only affirms women, but has a long and rich history of defending them. 

Among the insightful jewels in Paradise Beneath Her Feet are: in 1898 a Muslim scholar from India published a treatise called The Rights of Women, which one year later was followed by The Liberation of Women being published in Egypt.  Also, Grand Ayatollah Saanei, one of the ten highest-ranking clerics in Iranian Shiism, has said women should be able to hold any job, including president or supreme religious leader; women's testimony is to be of the same value as a man's; and women have the right to abortion on the grounds on "compassion".  And these are only some of the examples.

That said, this book does have its limitations.  As the author points out in her introduction, she began researching the book knowing nearly nothing about these topics.  And, accordingly, much of her insight about women and Islam in the Middle East come across as a debutant fascinated and surprised by her findings, rather than a wizened master who is able to thoroughly or exhaustively parse her topic.  The first chapter 'Why Women Matter' leaves one wondering, if a chapter on 'Why Women Matter' is required, and the following case is made solely in economic terms, has not the battle for the defense of women in Islam already been lost?  Or is the self-evident value of women today just a dead Western dream, buried as a Paradise Beneath Her Feet?