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

~ (Author), Fatema Mernissi (Author), Mary Jo Lakeland (Translator) "Muslims suffer from a mal du present just as the vouth of Romantic Europe suffered from a mal du siecle..." (more)
Key Phrases: fourth orthodox caliph, little female cat, des prophètes, Abu Hurayra, Abu Bakra, Umm Salama (more...)

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 20, 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: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars don't listen to the negative reviews on this book!, July 12, 2001

By	C. L. Michaud "Tia Michaud" (Oak Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

salaam alaykum, to all my muslim sisters, I think this is an excellent book. There are so many differences of opinion in terms of hadith and practice of the religion, i.e. acceptability of this vs that in practicing islam, that one can get truly lost in delving into specifics. (A point which the author makes early on in the book) Mernissi takes us along on her journey through knowledge to show us what she found and allow us to make our own decisions. Everything is documented (as it would have to be to stand up to criticism on such a touchy subject!) I would not suggest this book for non-muslims, just because it is so directed towards the muslim female. (I think a little background knowledge really helps when reading this book.) As a muslim convert, I thought this book was invaluable, if not just to show that there WERE differences of opinion on hadith.

anyway, I do suggest you read it, and I DO think the other people who gave this book one star were a little too narrow minded. Allah is a god who values thought and introspection, even where religion is concerned.

20 of 22 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)

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.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.