The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam [Paperback]

Fatima Mernissi (Author), Mary Jo Lakeland (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Muhammad was a chief of state who publicly acknowledged the importance of affection and sexuality. He was a polygynous husband whose wives were not just background figures but often shared decision-making with him. According to Moroccan sociologist Mernissi ( Beyond the Veil ), the founder of Islam asserted the equality of women, rejected slavery and envisioned an egalitarian society. Mernissi further claims that successive Muslim priests manipulated and distorted sacred texts, from the seventh century onward, in an effort to maintain male privileges. Her close textual analyses of the Hadith , or stories of words and deeds attributed to the Prophet, support her far-reaching reinterpretation of the historic roots of Islam and its modern tendency to reduce woman to a "submissive, marginal creature."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Mernissi, an internationally known Moroccan sociologist, endeavors to show that discrimination against women, so common in the Muslim world today, is not a fundamental tenet of Islam as many contemporary male Muslims would like us to believe. Her basic premise is that Islam is inherently egalitarian and, using extensive documentation from the Koran, the Hadith, and other Islamic historical commentary, Mernissi successfully proves her hypothesis. While doing so, she teaches the reader a great deal about Mohammed (the man as well as the prophet), his wives, his companions, and early Islamic society. Like Mernissi's other books ( Beyond the Veil , Indiana Univ. Pr., 1987; Doing Daily Battle , Rutgers Univ. Pr., 1989; Women in Emergent Morocco , Flame Internat., 1982), this fascinating, well-written, and well-documented work is an excellent addition to scholarship on Muslim women. Recommended for academic libraries and others with women's studies or Middle East collections.
- Ruth K. Baacke, Bellingham P.L., Wash .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (December 21, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201632217
• ISBN-13: 978-0201632217
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Hadith
  • #20 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Women in Islam

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and learned, but really for muslims, October 11, 2002

By 

D. Murphy (Norfolk, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam (Paperback)

Fatima Mernissi's book is a fascinating excursion through her own journey of discovery. She takes us from a man's put-down of her with the Hadith "those who entrust their affairs to a woman will never know prosperity", to an enlightened understanding of the historical context in which the oppressive traditions of Islam arose.

After explaining her background in the introduction she deals with the above hadith and how it came about, she analyzes the role of women in early Islam and especially the prophet's apparent view of women and a very in-depth and detailed discussion of how the veil, or hijab, came into being for Muslim women.

She shows that the denial of women's rights was not the intention of Allah, as the source of Holy Law, nor of Mohammed, but arose in the context of the pre-existing social values of the Arab world of the time, and of the vested political interests and power struggles of the period following Mohammed's death.

The study is very detailed and quite arcane, and although Ms Mernissi takes a lot of care to explain terminology and context, it really requires some background knowledge of Islam and Arabs. The book's main target audience is Moslem women, to show they do have rights within Islam, and possibly Moslem men. I believe westerners can learn from it, but are probably better served by reading more general books on Islamic history and culture. In particular non-Moslems need to understand that Islam is not a single culture, but in reality many traditions under one umbrella, in much the same way that Christendom encompasses many religious and cultural traditions.

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important work, January 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam (Paperback)

I find it interesting that another reader found, within the pages of this book, justification for a Muslim woman wearing a piece of cloth to cover her head. My perception of Ms. Mernissi's views is quite the opposite. What she was trying to say throughout the whole book can be summed up in one of the final questions she asks in her conclusion: "How did the tradition succeed in transforming the Muslim woman into that submissive, marginal creature who buries herself and only goes out into the world timidly and huddled in her veils?" Mernissi then questions why a Muslim man needs such a "mutilated companion." These ideas are what make this book so important. Mernissi clearly reveals the reasons why the tradition of hiding under a veil came about. Many Muslim women feel honored to wear a hijab (head covering) because, for one reason, they feel it earns them greater respect. Mernissi's view is that when the tradition first started, most (if not all) women were considered slaves. The covering of the head signified a woman was not to be considered a slave, but someone who had converted to Islam. I highly recommend this book to every woman, Muslim and non-Muslim, (and man, for that matter) who questions the present treatment of women in the Islamic religion.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly and well researched, October 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam (Paperback)

Fatima Mernissi's book is well-written and thoroughly researched. It also draws on great works of the Islamic past. She does not throw out ahadith at all - she accepts their authenticity completely but delves more deeply into the context in which they were related. The book extols the Prophet (saw) but I don't recommend the book for non-Muslims or those who are not firm in their belief in Islam.