Customer Reviews

The Face Behind The Veil: The Extraordinary Lives of Muslim Women in America

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a Muslim woman convert myself, I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this book was. I found an alarming number of stories about violence in the relationships of these women. Yes, many of the stories were positive but they were overshadowed by the sensationalism of the abusive relationships some of these women had to deal with. I also didn't appreciate the fact that one story was about a "used-to-be-christian, then became Muslim, and now-am-Christian again and need to help abused Muslim women" woman. If the book was about Muslim women, she should have been excluded because she blamed her abusive relationship on Islam and any Muslim who practices the religion correctly knows that it is in no way condoned by the faith. Some of this book just reinforces negative stereotypes that the American public already has about Islam. With so many negztive things about the religion in the news, I would have liked for this book to be solely positive.

I'm recommending this new book that takes a person look at the Muslim women in America. This Christian author discusses her encounters with Muslim women and the problems they have met in practicing their religion. It reveals the prejudices that exist and the difficulities that their dress and prayer schedules present. The interviews are candid and some of the women have become friends of the author. This is the first of a trilogy on women and religion in America. Future books will present Christian and Jewish women. The author makes a very good presentation

This book is a realistic portrayal of American Muslim women. Those who are offended by positive stories need to know that American Muslim community is larger than 27 Muslim nation-states. The United States enjoyes the most affluent and educated group of Muslims in the world. It is unfair and inappropriate to compare this group of women to the Muslim women in other parts of the world.

Similarly, those who are offended by not so positive stories assume that the author is implying that the women's problems are the fault of the religion,Islam. That is not what the book says. It is human failure. As long as Muslims are a part of human stock, their struggle with good and evil will continue. I think this book is an excellent attempt to place American Muslims as a part of general American landscape. In my opinion it is a five star book.

Mohammad S. Shakir

I bought this book as I'm about to launch on a research project looking at the lives of second/third generation & convert women living in the Western world. I enjoyed what were essentially small vignettes, but felt they lacked depth. I wondered whether the author physically met and engaged with many of the women, instead collecting perhaps short written testimonies which were then cobbled together into a book.

There were also factual errors, for example her calling the women "Muslimah" when that is the singular (it refers to one Muslim woman) and "Muslimaat" is the correct plural noun; or declaring there is nothing in the Qur'an requiring the generality of women to veil.

I liked that she attempted to categorise the women's stories into more than just immigrants and converts, but I wonder whether calling someone a "new traditionalist" just because they wear and focus on hijab is a little simplistic.

I think she did a good job accessing and portreying women in various professional fields, although I agree with previous authors that some of the women's statements and claims were presented uncritically, such as the immigrant bride who ended up in a mental facility.

An improvement on other texts, but an endorsement by Jean Sassoon on the cover, should make any knowledgable reader pause before buying the book.

The author does an excellent job of telling the stories of Muslim women in the US, who are very diverse. Ms. Gehrke-White introduces the reader to the lives of the New Traditionalists, The Blenders, The Converts, The Persecuted, and the Changers. In the US, the Muslimah has, as the author said, an "extraordinary" life, complete with choices, unfortunately unlike some of her counterparts abroad. The book is a celebration of Muslimah diversity. The Muslim women are speaking from their own voices. These are their stories. Through the interviews, Ms. Gehrke-White gained access to the lives of Muslim women like few non-Muslim authors have. As you read this book, you will throw away all your pre-conceptions and stereotypes of Muslim women.

Muslim women, like all women,have challenges in their daily lives as it relates to family, career and society.Unfortunately, misconceptions and myths seem to dominate the information circulating in the general public about Muslim women. This book, serves as a positive instrument to dispel some of those myths and misconceptions by presenting actual pictures of Muslim women who are serving their community and raising their families.The personal accounts of these women go a long way to remove the veil of deception and misinformation so popular in the broader community. While the author shows the human side of her Muslim subjects, we learn what we should already have known: "that despite their religious difference,Muslim women are human beings striving to live meaningful, peaceful lives." This book is a must read for the well informed.

Reading this book was great. I appreciate all the work the author went through to publish it from choosing the characters that were included in it to her accurate analysis about the existence of violence against women in all religions, not just Islam. This fact shows that Islam has nothing to do with violence against women, as many media outlets try to portray. Violence is a social problem, not a religious one. Although I didn't appreciate the story of the woman who was Christian and converted to Islam and then converted back to Christianity, because of the abuse, and although I know there are some Muslim men who don't treat women with kindness, the fault here is the fault of the man who is not following the right Islamic teachings.

I can't recommend a better book about Muslim women in America. This is the best by far and I went back to read it at my library multiple times. With all the controversy surrounding Islam, reading the stories of women entering Islam is like breathing fresh air on a Saturday morning. The most powerful chapter to me was ch22 about a blonde woman who frequented clubs where she danced and showed off her outfits and was always buying the latest cosmetics. After 1 trip to a local mosque, she slowly went in the direction of the truth. After learning more about Islam, she changed her name to Fatima and became a Muslim and never missed a daily prayer since. She became such a devout Muslim; she not only covered her hair but wanted to cover her face in public.

I thought about how a woman could be dancing in a club one day and wanting to cover up her face the next. What I came up with is that people want to be the best at what they do. In the American culture, women strive to be the Top model or the American idol and they generally want to look their best. In Islam, women strive to please God and in the process, try to be modest and some women and men (the Taliban) can go overboard trying to do that. We all need a balance between material and spiritual life, between reason and soul, between this world and the next and between indulgence and abstinence. The Prophet said that we should seek the "Middle Path" and never stray into extremism.

What Islam does better than any other religion in the world is give guidance to human beings. The first chapter in the Quran says, "Guide us to the straight path." There are paths we can take in life and some of those paths can lead us to happiness or destruction. A lady in the book said she left Islam and became a Christian. From far away, it would appear as if Islam was the problem in her life. If we take a closer look at her relationship with her Muslim husband, who beat her and abused her and said he was going to marry another woman because his religion allowed him to do so. The book also mentioned that he drunk alcohol. I am sure any woman would be angry with a husband like this, whether he was a Muslim or not. His religion had nothing to do with his actions as he wasn't following the teachings of Islam in the first place. He was not on the "straight path" and he will be punished on the Day of Judgment because God is just. This woman, like many other people, makes the assumption that Islam is no good from one example or from one type of person. Only those who have deep knowledge of Islam will appreciate what it brings to humanity.

I do not believe this book tells the whole story. Sure there are women who wear this veil out of faith and there are those who wear it out of submission. However, the problem with the veil whether worn in faith or submission is that it hides the so called moderate muslim woman which seems quite ironic and more in keeping with a fundamentalism belief and that very nonassimilation draws a line in the dirt that is at odds with western society. It is a separatist symbol towards the western world and consequently arguments of peaceful muslims seem contrived and deliberately misleading concerning tolerance. I find this garment is not only an insult to the west that has opened its doors indeed with tolerance in general to muslim immigrants but also a plain security threat in the daily course of events such as in banks and airports where seeing the individual is the norm and a matter of course concerning validation of identity. It represents an attitude of divisiveness and certainly in the community it is not inviting to social functions or those that serve to bridge gaps of knowledge and understanding between different cultures. As a health care worker we face special limitations for these burka women that I believe are unfair and difficult to adhere to such as in providing emergency care. I believe exposing domestic violence and problems planning prayer sessions are informative but it should be no surprise as every culture has had problems with domestic violence and certainly it could be said that other cultures have had problems with planning to accomodate islamic people and their many needs. Certainly some of the women subscribing to this cloak of misery is a surprise knowing that in america women have fought for freedom of rights but that only shows how far these women are from believing in that concept. I find that islam in general is very intolerant to sharing of culture in american and live and let live policy so to speak when it comes to other culture and that this cloak this burka is merely a way to hide their phobia concerning american. While american excesses may be true america is the country that allows them to come here because we believe in multiculturalism and freedoms unheard of in islamic countries. The veil to me whether worn by a faithful follower or by a submissive follower still represents the oppression of women in america and is in keeping with islamic policies of divisiveness and supremacism!

The Face Behind The Veil: The Extraordinary Lives Of Muslim Women In America is an illuminating and riveting string of more than fifty miniature portraits of Muslim women in America that reveals a many-faceted view of individual Muslim women, or Muslimah. There are perhaps 6 million Muslims in America; the figure is indefinite because the U. S. census does not ask Americans their religious preference. American Muslimah are extremely diverse in origins, hailing from at least seventy-seven different countries. Converts or 'reverts' also come from every ethnic group in America. Perhaps one reason Americans are unaware of the Muslimah in their midst is because they prefer not to draw attention to themselves, due to religious intolerance. There are many different groups and subgroups of the Muslimah in addition to stereotyped downtrodden, traditionally veiled women who are refugees, or facing problems of domestic violence and child custody battles. Some of the new types of Muslimah are categorized as follows: The New Traditionalists wear the veil or hijah, but also include career women as well as full time mothers. The Blenders are Muslimah who wear no head covering and so may not look "Muslim." They are often immigrants, second generation Americans, and career women, but they consider themselves spiritually Muslim. The Converts come from a mix of racial and ethnic groups and sometimes call themselves 'reverts,' because they believe everyone was originally Muslim; thus it is reversion, not conversion to the Muslim faith. Converts sometimes wear traditional women's attire, even adding gloves and long gowns to the veil. The Persecuted Muslimah are women who come to America to escape violence and repression. Coming from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and India, these Muslimah may be seeking asylum and immunity to sometimes fatal outcomes at the hands of male relatives or husbands. Finally there are the Changers, Muslimah who seek to improve the status of women in Muslim through public declarations, running for public office, and starting nonprofit humanitarian groups to help abused, poor Muslimah. Some of these champion equal rights for women within the mosque. In The Face Behind The Veil, the reader will meet individual Muslimah from each of these groups and more, thanks to tireless interviews collected and deftly edited by Donna Gehrke-White, career journalist and feature writer for the Miami Herald. There are Cherokee heritage mothers, suburban moms, career moms, literate and intellectual women, and desperately poor women who are in fear of their very lives. There are determined Muslimah, canny women who intend to take a stand to improve their future and the future of their daughters. There are many women of widely varied backgrounds who are attracted by the principles of Muslimism. The Face Behind The Veil is an effort to demystify and identify these courageous, ordinary Muslimah to the rest of their fellow Americans. Expect a surprising amount of eye-opening evidence of religious oppression in the land of the free. The Face Behind The Veil may help to correct prejudice and bigotry where it is unconscious, or even perhaps deliberate. It is a profoundly moving book.