Customer Reviews

Women and the Koran: The Status of Women in Islam

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

This book really hits the point.

The point of "women in Islam" is not so much whether or not women are allowed to become doctors etc. However there is a big disparity in Islam as soon as human sexuality is concerned: Whereas an unmarried muslim male can have as much premarital sex as he likes, a muslim woman is strictly obliged to preserve her virginity to "keep the honor of the family". If she does not do so, she must expect to be killed by her own family (in order to re-install the "honor of the family"). And those are facts proven by evidence.

So as long is there is no sexual equality between the sexes, there is no equality between the sexes at all.

I totally agree with the author point of view. I myself was muslim women living under lies of islam. All the time I over heard pious muslim men talking about great the pleasure of having sex with underage virgin girls and condemning about how sexually tasteless a non virgin girls to have sex with. Islam has the double stand of giving men all the sexual freedom and supressing women's rights.

This is truly a wonderful book.As a woman,I am a beliver in woman's rights.Islam simply portrays woman to be subordinate to men.This is why I left Islam.Look whats happening in the Middle East,woman are tortured on everyday basis.Islam supports brutality towards woman.The so-called prophet Mohammad was nothing but a sexist.

I totally agree with the author. I could have done writting the similar book to expose the injustice done in the name islam. Many thanks for the courage to write out despite fatwas from religious bigots. I now dare declare that I have abandon Islam for secular humanism.

As a muslim turned atheists, I strongly agree with this book because most of the tradition, ritual, morals of islam was produced by forgery of Judaism, Christianity, Pagan Arab culture and Muhammad bin Abdullah's experience. For example not eating pork was borrowed from Judaism. The majority of the tradition was from Muhammad's own experience for example wine drinking was permitted until the prophet's own follower and his uncle was so drunk and misbehaves in mosque. The veiling of muslim women was due to the scandal involving prophet Muhammad with his daughter-in-law Zainab.

The most disturbing trent nowdays is that the apologetics of islam were trying to hide the absurdities and errancy of the Quran and Sahih Bukhari.

Just one look at the emotional, angry reviews of this well-written book made me want to buy it. After reading it, I was glad I did because the author really lays it out. Islam must first allow criticism and scrutiny from within and without like all the other religions do. As it stands now, saying anything negative about it is a good way to get yourself killed... unless you are lucky enough to live in a free country. Interested readers should also try "Why I Am Not A Muslim". The only way this religion can survive the light of scrutiny and the anger of millions of women is to change, and quickly. Women should rise up and put a fatwa on the males who use Islam to deprive them of their basic human rights.

The movie critic Michael Medved once described himself as a "glorified sewer inspector," and that is surely what Anwar Hekmat (not Helmat, despite what it says above) is. Anyone who undertakes to explore Muhammad's marriage to a 9-year-old girl, his copulation with her in a room filled with her dolls, his marriage to at least 11 (and possibly as many as 20) other women, and his other activities relating to women also has spent some time in the historical sewer.

This book details the entire repressive sexual regime of the traditional Muslim societies, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Pakistan. (The author didn't get to describe the barabarians currently in control of Afghanistan, because they were not yet in power when the book was finished in 1996.) It's astounding, yet accurate: I know an American woman who went to visit a sheik in Iraq in the 1980s and was followed around by pebble-throwing boys because she wasn't wearing the traditional Muslim covering. No one disciplined the boys, because it was she who was in the "wrong": she had dared to show her female head in public!

Marrying 9-year-olds, it seems, became a tradition with the caliphs (heads of Islam) after Muhammad, and the author shows that child brides are still favored in much of the Muslim world today. It must be okay, because the "Prophet" did it!

The most useful part of this book, perhaps, is the extensive treatment of the historical background of the sections of the Koran and the hadiths dealing with women. While Islam says they came to Muhammad from God (whom Muslims, following pagan Arabs before Muhammad's day, call "Allah"), it seems that many are direct copies of provisions of Babylonian, Assyrian, and other Middle Eastern law with which Muhammad was familiar.

It was only Muhammad, though, who invented the idea that it was acceptable for his warriors to take as many of the women they captured in war as sex slaves as they wanted to. His exploits in this regard were truly stunning -- and the civil war in Sudan still features the taking of (in this case, Christian and animist) sex slaves today!

If you don't think Islam is a gutter religion, an evil imposition from the bedouins of 7th-century Arabia, read this book. It'll show you the truth. [I also recommend reading the Koran and Ibn Warraq's _Why I Am Not A Muslim_, which both provide plenty of evidence that God has nothing to do with Islam and that the Iranians' treatment of women today is consistent with Muslim governments' behavior ever since Muhammad -- if Iran isn't actually more lenient!]

I am happy that someone had the courage and opportunity to say the things this author has. It has become politically incorrect to say negative things about any religion or religious group. However, in our drive to be "tolerant" we often ignore the very real, negative and sometimes dangerous aspects of certain belief systems. This is a book worth reading.

This book tells you the facts.

Let me present some interesting quotes to show what I mean:

About child-marriage:
" 1. Child marriage is lawful in Islam and the neccessary contract can be drawn up between the guardian and the would-be husband when the girl is no more than five or six years old. In this sense marriage is nothing but the sale of a minor girl. We shall refer to this in more detail in the following chapter.
2. The consent of the girl is not prerequisite for the marriage of a female child to a grown man over fifty.
3. Sexual intercourse of a fifty year old man with a mere girl is not something to be ashamed of. On the contrary, the act of Muhammad in taking a child as his wife set a precedent, which then became a tradition (sunna) in the Muslim lawbooks and jurisprudence.
4. Despite the fact that the girl Aisha was frightened when Muhammad approached her sexually, the Prophet went on to consummate the marriage regardless of the consequences. Whereas sexual intercourse with a girl in her childhood is a punishable offense in most countries of the world today, this deplorable custom still goes on in some Muslim nations. The girl was so small that according to the reliable Islamic biographers, she took along her toys and playthings to the Prophets bedchamber: 'The little girl was allowed to keep her toys and her dolls and sometimes the Prophet would play games with her.'

About veilig of women:
"There have also been recorded instances in which two lovers have met secretly and had sexual contact without removing the veil from the woman's face. In the eyes of the uneducated fundamentalist girl, revealing her face to a man who is not her next of kin is an unforgivable crime. In fact it is a capital crime, much more serious than adultery or fornication."

About pre-islamic women of Arabia :
"The position of pre-islamic women was comparatively high and they certainly were not regarded as as slaves or chattel, but as equal partners.(...)
'A panorama of female sexual rights in pre-islamic cultures reveals that women's sexuality was not bound by the concept of legitimacy. Children belonged to the mother's clan. Women had sexual freedom to enter into and break unions with more than one man.'"

About slavery:
"Black as well as white slaves were annually imported by the thousands into the muslim empire. In more recent times, Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, became the center of slave trade."

About wife-beating:
"The law of wife-beating is a one way street. A man may strike his wife, but the woman may not do the same. A woman is not allowed to beat her mate even if she is able to defend herself by striking back. If she does, she will be sent to jail."

It is neccessary for muslims to finally learn that self-criticism is a sign of strength, not of weakness, for without criticism and self-criticism there will never be any improvement whatsoever.
Freedom starts inside your head!
Read also the book -Why I am not a muslim- by Ibn Warraq and remember these words of wisdom spoken by the ancient Chinese philospher Lao-Tse about 600 B.C.:
"The more prohibitions there are,
The poorer the people become. "

I am amazed at the reviews I am reading about this book -- most of which are biased and based on ignorance. (Don't write a review if you can't spell or punctuate.) This book is not well written as far as good writing goes. It is obviously emotional and written by a person who truly feels that women are treated unfairly in Islam societies. It, perhaps, shows a general view of the way women are treated in Islamic societies (as not all Islamic countries are equal in their treatment of women), but the picture is not as incorrect as some of the reviewers would have you believe. No one denies that women are separated in these societies, that they must wear veils and are not allowed, in many Islamic countries, to enjoy the many joys of living--including physical activities such as swimming, hiking, playing ball, eating in a restaurant alone, etc. And yet, these people who are stating that women are honored in these societies are not letting women have choices in these matters. I have just read, "Reading Lolita in Tehran" which goes into detail about how women are treated there--being killed for showing a small curl of hair or having a tempting voice that causes men to desire them. The problem is not this book, but it is these reviewers who extol and excuse this behavior and claim it is honoring women. The fact of the matter is, that under Islamic law, women are blamed for the actions of men who are unable to discipline their own bodies and thoughts. This book says to you--It is time to allow women to choose for themselves what they want to do. As for the research--Hekmat gave almost 20 pages of footnotes -- so those of you who aren't sure if the information is correct --be brave -- be a true intellectual -- check out the sources.