“Almighty God created sexual desire in ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women and one to men.”
- Ali ibn Abu Taleb, husband of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and founder of the Shiite sect of Islam.
Ever since I’ve opened my eyes to understanding, ever since I remember my existence, I have lived in a protected yet free environment. Being the first child in a joint North Indian family, I have been given the freedom to choose and think like an independent individual. Never was I meant to feel that I belong to a so-called “inferior” gender, which has been labelled so by the norms of society.
I did not ever think that my freedom and independence could be taken away from me. Why?…Well because, as a kid, I wasn’t exposed to the harsh realities of life, I didn’t know that in this very world where Women like Marie Curie have fostered the path of science, there are also countries in which women are treated like they are a blemish on the face of the earth…
The original necessity for the ceaseless presence of the woman to maintain the altar fire -- and it was an altar fire in very truth at one period -- has passed with the means of prompt ignition; the matchbox has freed the housewife from that incessant service, but the feeling that women should stay at home is with us yet.
-- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A String of Thoughts Put Together…
Nine Parts Of Desire is just one of the many observations which highlights the differences between Women in an independent world contrasting strikingly with the Hidden World of Islamic Women.The book is a collection of observations and meetings with people in the Middle East, seen from the point of view of a reporter called Geraldine Brooks who’s project is to delve into the Muslim world and dig deep to find the conditions of women.The highlights of the narrative are the opinions of the women themselves who are immersed in the society in question, and what they feel about the whole situation.
The book juxtaposes many situations in which Brooks encounters women located in areas deeply influenced by Islam with those circumstances in which the women adopt the religion and the way of living by choice. The Middle East, which comprises of the concentration of the world’s Islamic population, has countries, which still have not separated Religion from Government and have sketched out their governmental values on the teachings of Islam. Hence, the status of women is pulled out from the interpretations of the Koran and engraved into the national laws. However, this is also exactly where the fault lies. Interpretations of the Koran are done by inevitably biased individuals who at times deviate from the direct teachings and form evaluations which are then adopted by the Laws, thus leaving the condition of the women at the mercy of these few Leaders, who claim to be the true connoisseurs of Islam.
The varied interpretations are the reason why even among the various different Islamic countries in the Middle East, striking differences can be seen where Women’s Rights are concerned. This we learn, as we follow our Western reporter along the streets of various different Islamic countries where she meets women who within the same religion are so different in the way they carry and practise their religion. Some incidences are undoubtedly shocking, and make you think what IS a woman’s worth in this male dominated society, and then there are times when you see perfectly content Females who stay within the religion and are yet able to go beyond it.
Islam and Women
As the book contains a generous dose of stories from the Koran, one gets to learn about the fundamental ideas that Prophet Mohammed passed on to its followers that have now been written down as the basic rules which people follow. The stories about the prophet’s interactions and prophecies about women give a clear picture of how essential it is to interpret a religious teaching in its correct sense! For, as we’re seeing today, centuries of interpretations have seeped through the minds of many, and produced a “hidden” society, where oppressions against women are countless and rather brutal, at times completely off from what the Koran claims to be rightful actions.
My Criticisms
Although this book offered me a great insight about the situation of Women in many places, I cannot say it is the perfect guide to the “Hidden world”, the main reason being that to understand a culture and religion as vast and spread out as Islam, there is really no way in which you can generalise on basically anything. Another reason being that Geraldine Brooks, even though she learns about the religion and women’s lives through her own personal findings, there is really no way that she can relate her findings objectively, as there is always an underlying, rather inevitable, comparison between the Women she’d grown up seeing, the society and culture of the West that she’s accustomed to, and this new and mysterious world where women’s roles in society and not even Close to being dominant.
Still, I cannot claim that Brooks doesn’t have an understanding of the culture and religion, since she really delved deep into this unknown facet of society and experienced a spectrum of people and emotions. She has done extensive amount of research on the subject and surely portrays a rather sad but accurate account of events. But as I’ve mentioned already, it’s the interpretation where she cannot refrain from making comparisons.
If I was to state my humble, rather inconsequential, opinion on this matter and the book, I’d say that women aren’t meant to be studied in this espionage-project way anyway. In an idealist world, the status of women would be such that such vast surveys and studies over their rights and conditions would not be needed at all. I mean, when have you ever heard of reporters going some place to study conditions of men? So I guess what I’m getting at is that, making “women’s conditions” a project is in itself the proof that we, as a global society, as still far behind from being called fully developed…
Another issue that I did not understand about the book is the association with unfair deeds against women and the religion Islam. I agree that in the “hidden Islamic world”, what goes on against women is the extreme depths to which people can stoop to, yet, I do not think it fair to target a specific geographical area in such a way.
Continued in the Comments Section