Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women [Paperback]

Geraldine Brooks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2010

When her poised and sophisticated yuppie assistant at the Cairo bureau of the "Wall Street Journal" suddenly 'adopted the uniform of a Muslim fundamentalist', Geraldine Brooks set out to discover the truth about women and Islam. Sometimes adopting a chador as camouflage, she was granted meetings (and often astonishingly intimate insights) by everyone from Queen Noor of Jordan to former Iranian President Rafsanjani's daughter. She met with Palestinians protesting about 'honour killings' for adultery and sheltered girls transformed into warriors by the Emirates' armed forces. Throughout the Middle East, Brooks was invited into the homes and lives of these women where she found real stories that overturn western stereotypes. Fair-minded and often revelatory, "Nine Parts of Desire" is an extraordinarily rich tapestry of the different lives women lead under Islam, and a captivating and diverse portrait of a little known world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Geraldine Brooks spent two years as a Middle East news correspondent, covering the death of Khomeini and the like. She also learned a lot about what it's like for Islamic women today. Brooks' book is exceedingly well-done--she knows her Islamic lore and traces the origins of today's practices back to Mohammed's time. Personable and very readable, Brooks takes us through the women's back door entrance of the Middle East for an unusual and provocative view. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Having spent six years covering the Middle East for the Wall Street Journal, Brooks presents an exploration of the daily life of Muslim women and the often contradictory forces that shape their lives.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK) (March 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141029404
• ISBN-13: 978-0141029405
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,409,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Geraldine Brooks is the author of People of the Book, March and Year of Wonders and the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Previously, Brooks was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, stationed in Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East. She lives in rural Virginia with her husband, author Tony Horowitz, and their son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

122 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More balanced than most, December 11, 2001

By 

J. Marren "jtm497" (Glen Ridge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (Paperback)

Books on Islam generate a lot of controversy these days, especially after 9/11. Having read several I found this one fairly balanced. Brooks is a reporter by trade, which at times leads to a bit of superficiality in the treatment of complex topics but on the whole makes this a relatively dispassionate treatment of women and Islam.

Of course Brooks brings a Western point of view to her subject, and is intensely critical of a system where women are subject to male family members with few personal rights. She is careful to point out that Islamic law does provide for inheritance by women and allows a type of pre-marriage contract that can protect them from the husband's polygamy, give them the right of divorce, establish that their education will be allowed to continue, etc. But one suspects that these privileges are available only to the wealthy as a practical matter.

Brooks is careful to distinguish various Muslim societies from one another, just as one sees huge differences among Christian countries. She along with most authors I've read has little good to say about Saudi Arabia. But interestingly, she identifies Iran as a more progressive society in which women are permitted to work and participate in politics. And Egypt is described as having a lively, sensual culture that she believes will never be snuffed out by fundamentalists.

One of the more disturbing chapters of the book deals with education. The number of women in school is unacceptably low,education often ceases as women are wed at a very early age, and much schooling is focused on the study of Islam. Even more disturbing is the increasing control fundamentalists exert over educational institutions, which results in a student body much more conservative than the faculty who were educated in more open-minded times. And academic freedom has no place here.

Brooks tries to identify areas of repression that she sees as cultural rather than religious. At the same time, she says that Muslims cannot rely on the improvements to womens' lives that occurred during the time of the Prophet to defend Islam today. It is sadly true that any religion that literally relies on a Sacred Text from hundreds of years earlier--Christianity included--will inevitably fail to respect the notions of individual liberty and equality that are the ideals of the modern world.

Brooks' book was written over 6 years ago. The trends she identifies are very disturbing, but except for some vague familiarity with Ayatollah Khomeini, few Americans had any of this on their radar screens before 9/11. A book like this will hopefully lead to some better understanding of this complex subject.

71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Balance Please, February 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (Paperback)

These reviews are such extremes. Mulsims saying Brookes is an enemy of Islam etc. Others saying this represents the truth about Islam. What is required is some balance. The author is right about the sorry state of womens rights in Islamic countries. Her tone, while caustic, is entertaining and while I am a Muslim, I do not find it insulting at all. She is wrong on substantive areas of Islamic law. For example, she is woefully ignorant on divorce where the Maliki school allows divoce on the grounds of incompatability (contrary to her assertions). She also makes a great deal hinge on the age of the Prophets wife Aisha without even mentioning the controversy here (a comprehensive study by Pakistani Islamist scholars, Tehkik e Umar e Aisha, concludes she was 17 to 26 at the time of marriage). She does not search for truth and is only too ready to accept caricatures.

All of this said, we Muslims need to think hard about her views as we create the surface perceptions she reflects. Rather than condemn her work, we need to ask outselves why we give others such impressions. In return outsides owe us to dig deeper for the truth.

101 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening book that made me yearn to know more, July 8, 2000

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (Paperback)

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks spent six years as a journalist in the Middle East. She's also the wife of Tony Horwitz, who wrote "Confederates in the Attic" and "Baghdad Without a Map." I read both of these books and remember how fondly he speaks of her. And so reading this book was, in a way, getting to know her too.

Ms. Brooks is a secular feminist. She makes no secret of that. And, as a woman, she was able to gain entry into a the world behind the heavy veils, which she often needed to wear herself. She spoke with many woman, did a lot of research, and moved within this special world as an observer and witness to her times.

Her interviews ranged from the Queen of Jordan to a Palestinian woman who lived in with her husband, his second wife and all their children in a modest hut. Some of the women she talked with were highly educated; others had never learned to read and write. They all accepted their religion and were able to express their point of view in a way I could understand even though some of them were often hostile to westerners.

Ms. Brooks tried to cover a lot in her book -- the treatment of women in different countries, the practice of genital mutilation, education of women, legal status. She even discussed the contradictions about the status of women all the way back to Mohammed's time. That's a big order for a little book. It was not always successful. It only opened my mind. It did not satisfy it, leaving me with a desire to learn more. And especially wanting to read some works written from an Islamic woman's point of view.

Also, since its publication in 1995, much of it is dated. Her interview with Mrs. Khomeini at the time of the Ayatollah's death took place in 1989. And, more recently, Jordan's King Hussein and Syria's Hafez Assad have passed away. But I must say that this book did open my eyes. It's time now to learn more.