Customer Reviews

Medicines of the Soul: Female Bodies and Sacred Geographies in a Transnational Islam

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Regarding "Medicines of the Soul" by Ms. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, another reviewer wrote: "In Medicines of the Soul, the autobiographical writings of three leading women in today's Islamic revival movement reveal dramatic stories of religious transformation. As interpreted by Fedwa Malti-Douglas, the autobiographies provide a powerful, groundbreaking portrayal of gender, religion, and discourses of the body in Arabo-Islamic culture. At the center of each story is a lively female Islamic spirituality that questions secular hierarchies while reaffirming patriarchal ones." Initially I bought this book in the hope that the author would be providing some type of a scholastic psycho-sociological analysis of how Islam influences Muslim women; but not to be. In short, the author analyses several autobiographical semi-novels written by Muslim authors. Fedwa looks for hidden double-entendre meanings in the novellas, and explains their `meaning' in terms of a Muslim woman's perspective. Fedwa spoke with several of these authors to draw out their thoughts for analysis. However, Fedwa doesn't look at how the Quran or the ahadith influence a Muslim male's perspective of women - only a couple of times does she refer to them. So this book is not a `deep', profound, scholarly research tome by some sociologist who is trying to pry open the female `Muslim mind'. If you like literature analysis, you might find this book informative (but about what I'm not to sure). Fedwa's `conclusions' are rather just too `broad' and `general' to provide any realistic utility in understanding why a Muslim woman has decided to veil herself and go `fundamentalistic.' If you are looking for some Freudian/Weber psychological analysis of the female Muslim, this book is barren.