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Average Customer Rating:

A long overdue insight

Customer Rating:

As a Muslim woman who has experienced life in some of the countries covered by Jan Goodwin in her book, I was amazed at how she manages to put across a very honest and unbiased account of what amounts to reality for women in the Islamic world. What truly astounds is the author's awareness of how far the social norms that are zealously upheld are so far divorced from original Islamic law and ideology. She opens the readers eyes to the very poor state of affairs for the majority of Muslim women in so-called Islamic nations and identifies the causes of this staus-quo. Many of the real-life stories that unfold before us are heartbreaking and often grisly such as the real tragedies that are a byproduct of decades of war and upheaval in the middle east. The book is gripping as it deals with a bizarre raelity that is stranger than fiction at times but also very informative as the history of the countries in question is also covered so as to throw light on how the current climate of intolerance, ignorance and oppression has evolved in countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and others. The author seeks the truth and in so doing takes us on a journey that should enlighten us and help us question our own prejudices. The one thing she has achieved is to finally, through carefully researched arguments, prove that these women are daily being cheated of the rights accorded to them over fourteen hundred years ago by their religion. She shows us that Islam gave women rights to property, rights in matrimony, rights to engage in business and above all, a right to dignity. The western world has always been largely ignorant of these facts and the world view is that the religion itself is oppresseive. Jan Goodwin shows us how the true oppressors are those who have manipulated the religion beyond recognition. Hats off to her for underatking such a perilous task. Not a mean feat.