Customer Reviews

Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World,Newly updated

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I fail to understand reviewers who dispute the realities coveyed in Jan Goodwin's book. I am a westerner who has lived in a Gulf state for 5 years, and I find the daily assault on the dignity of women harrowing. I have befriended a 21 year old local Moslem women. She is a very smart, ambitious university graduate, but the crushing narrowness of options open to her is terrifying. She can't travel, she can't work in an office with men, she can't even speak to a male in public. She facing an arranged marriage with a cousin, after which her career days are over. The reality is everywhere, plain to see. It just takes a look at the newspapers - recently, the Gulf News (UAE newspaper) reported that a man got a four year sentence for killing his wife by crushing her skull with a rock. The same issue reported that a Sri Lankan housemaid was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Justice? This happened in March in the UAE, which is a relatively liberal Islamic country. As a matter if interest, in every adultery case that I have seen reported, the women gets a heavier sentence than the man. Those who question the reality of the book, wake up. One issue which I don't understand: Moslems say that in the Quran, women are respected. Why do I never see this translated into reality?

I almost want to talk with some of these reviewers after reading this book. My Husband has travelled throughout the Midle east and said that much of the book is true. I am a Muslim and would like to first say that Islam as revealed through the Quran and Prophet Muhammad is very different from what is practiced throughout most of the world. Ms.Goodwin was just offering insight she moved me with her vividly written illustations. For all who are LOL you do not live it. I have met some people who live it right here in America. The overall message I think that she is saying is that women are being oppressed because men want power and they are able to exercise power over women in forms that are abusive and it is accepted because it is masked as religion. THIS IS NOT WHAT THE QURAN TEACHES. This book made me want to do something. After starting my family and being an at home Mom for seven years(my choice) I am applying to Law School to try to help women here and abroad. I left this book Knowing that I am Blessed because both my husband and I are Muslim and realize that the cultural aspects of the regions is not Islam or what is revealed in Quran. She points out the irony of what the leaders present and what the practices are. She shows the reality of many women's lives I was move to tears and then to action. This book change my outlook on life not Islam. My best advice is read the book then read the Quran Ahmed Ali has agood translation available at Amazon.com

This is one of the most informative and interesting books I have read in quite awhile. Jan Goodwin provides an excellent examination of both Islam and Islamists -- not always the same thing, especially in today's world. The first chapter has an understandable recreation of the birth of Islam, and how its prophet, Mohammed, viewed women. This beginning is severely contrasted with the ways in which many Muslim countries treat and sometimes oppress women -- all the while, stating that the Koran allows this behavior. Through interviewing women from several Muslim countries -- Afganistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and others -- Goodwin presents a disturbing picture of how women are depicted and controlled, despite the freedoms guaranteed to them by Islam. There are several surprises: who would have thought that women have more freedom (comparatively) in Iran than in Pakistan, which had a female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto? That women raped in many Muslim countries are blamed and shamed, perhaps even killed by relatives, even if the rape occurred due to home invasion? And that 'hymen restoration surgery' is offered in some countries where if a bride is not a virgin on her wedding night, she will be killed. These examples are just the beginning of an in-depth look Muslim women. Of course, not every situation is negative. Many women have a good sense of what Islam really says about their rights; also, there is a good sense that, as in all religion, the extremists may get the press, but the average believer knows the truth of their beliefs and the rights for both men and women. I have recommended this book to several of my classes as a place to begin studying the background for world events.

This book was extremely interesting and very provocative. Goodwin writes well and the stories she recounts are fascinating. The primary weakness of the book is its focus on upper-class women as opposed to women from the working-class but the book is still well worth a read.

I'm surprised to see so many reviewers criticize Goodwin for being anti-Islamic or even wrong. The book is not at all a criticism of Islam-in fact, Goodwin goes out of her way to show the differences between fundamentalism and more traditional forms of Islam (which she argues is extremely liberal in its view of women and their rights). Through a discussion of the legal codes imposed by fundamentalists as well as the coercive tactics used by the Islamicists, Goodwin demonstrates that it is fundamentalism, not Islam, which strips women of their rights (and she points to the dangers of Jewish and Christian fundamentalism in this regard as well).

Critics who claim that the stories Goodwin recounts are not typical would do well to think about the laws in places like Saudi Arabia. It is a fact that women there are forbidden to drive, forbidden to mingle freely with men, forbidden to dress as they please, forbidden to leave the country without male permission etc.-these are the laws and if you think women are pleased by these laws, ask yourself if you would really like to live under these conditions yourself. Critics would also do well to remember that human rights organizations (including Arab groups) have pointed out that the Arab world's backwardness is, in part, a result of their treatment of women (by denying women education and the right to work, these countries handicap themselves by using only half of their potential).

Many people have pointed out that one of the primary causes for the rise of fundamentalism is the extreme poverty of the Middle East-how ironic to realize that fundamentalism will lead to even greater poverty in the future by denying half the workforce the right to an education and the right to work.

No - you can't believe everything you read, but when there is an overwhelming incidence of coincidences, the chances are that it's not likely to be a coincidence. It is no joke that women are being unfairly treated, oppressed, and severely misunderstood in the middle east. Surely you can't deny that Jan Goodwin's account of the lives of such women is 100% accurate. However, her work is definitely and eye-opener for the rest of the muslim world (and non-muslim) to see the varying degrees of Islam, and really how much true islam has digressed. What you read in her book is not how I live my life as a muslim feminist living in North America. It is not how my family members live their lives either. Culture plays an important role in our lives and when Islam, a religion that IS a way of life, is mixed with an existing culture that is relatively contradictory, ie, pre-islamic practices, there is a degree of confusion as to the true status of islam.

Overall, it's a fabulous book, a must read. As long as you are here, reading this review, you must already be open-minded. Just keep in YOUR mind, what is real and what is just 10% of the population.

I loved this book, despite the fact that some sections are extremely sad. It's a powerful, riveting read, and extremely well researched. The author engages the reader in way you feel as if you are right there yourself talking to these women. It was obvious that Goodwin was able to develop a great deal of trust and rapport with the women she interviewed. I was also impressed at the variety of people she spoke with in countries that frequently have strict censorship. The book includes interviews with educated elite women to the impoverished illiterate, from conservative to liberal Muslims, and the author didn't just confine herself to the Arab Muslim world, but included non Arab-Muslim countries.

Having read the original version of the book, I still found it extremely helpful to go back and read the updated version, which has just come out, especially in light of 9/11, and the recent U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Price of Honor raised my awareness and understanding significantly of a part of the world we in the U.S. tend not to know a great deal about.

Equally important is the fact that the author is very respectful of Islam. I now understand why their faith is so important to Muslims, and just how integrated it is in their every day life and politics.

The book is an astounding tour of a large swathe of the Muslim world; the comparison within and between and among the different countries was fascinating. I highly recommend Price of Honor.

I am not sure, however, why Amazon continues to promote the older version of the book, while making potential customers search for the recently updated version.

The Price of Honor is a journey through ten years of research on the life of Muslim women in ten different Middle Eastern countries.
Jan Goodwin puts forth a very well written and well researched book, that has helped me gain some understanding of the culture of Muslim women under extremist Islamic rule.
One can't help but feel the pain and misery that these women live and experience in today's day and age.
This book may not speak for every Muslim woman, however, the fact still stands that most Americans treat their dogs better than women are treated under extreme Islamic rule.
Great and thought provoking book!

Jan Goodwin did something very difficult with this book. She is extremely fair and does an admirable job of not coloring the taste of this book with her own opinions. She cannot be accused of being judgmental. Goodwin did not write this book after only reading books or watching documentaries on the Middle East. She visited each country and talked personally with people there, whether they be private citizens, justices, queens, or those hunted by religous zealots. What disturbs me is other reviewers maligning America and American movies, yet not hesitating to be hypocritical when they themselves live in America. I guess it is alright to make harsh comments about the U.S. even though they derive benefits by living there. But at least America treasures real free speech and allows such comments to be made without the threat of a fatwa or at least a lengthy imprisonment. And that is what makes America a democracy: Goodwin can write this book, people can trash not just the book, but also America, and America will protect the rights of all concerned.

I too, enjoyed reading this book, however, as an american muslim woman, I feel that the author did not say often enough or make it clear enough that the atrocities happening to these women have no basis in Islam. These are purely man made laws and restrictions, and I would have liked to see her balance her truth-telling with quotes from the Quran and the words of Prophet Muhammed to show how Islam really says to treat women as a counter balance to how they are being treated. I also would like for the author to acknowledge that this is not just an islamic "thing" but something that is happening the world over. We as a world society are leading our women into one kind of oppression or another, here it just happens that they are inherently sexual slaves, whose image of being slim,sexy and beautiful lead our young girls into lives of anorexia and bulemia, and eventually suicide. I think this book should be a wake up call to how women are treated in all societies the world over.

I thought this was an incredible book. Jan Goodwin allows the women that she meets to tell their story in their own way. She also interviews women from all different walks of (Islamic) life and women that have different viewpoints, thus presenting all sides of the issue. This is one book that does not deserve to be called biased. There is no attempt to put down Islam, but the misapplication of it. She shows the history of Islam and what it was meant to be and what it is now. She shows the missionary element of it as well. Although I am not a Muslim (I am proud to be a Hindu), I did live in Iraq and Kuwait and can attest that much of what Goodwin narrates is true. I have heard similar stories too many times to be swayed by the other reviewers that swear up and down that this book is an exaggeration. It is no exaggeration, it is only too accurate.