Nine Parts of Desire: Uncovering the Secret Lives of Muslim Women

JA: Book Club selection by well known author. Very interesting but imagine there has been no change in the country’s situation from now to then? Or then to now? Women’s lives do not matter or count. Harsh world within the border and men desire there should be no updates or changes. Education for women is not available and not important!

United States on Jul 20, 2023

Dr. Jessica Jacobi: This book is more than 20 years old but helped me to get an understanding of women in Islamic culture. Well written.

Germany on Sep 21, 2022

Client d'Amazon: The title is puzzling and is never really explained fully. The book is not very out of date in that many things have happened in the Muslim world since it was written. The author spent time with women in many countries and had good access to them as part of her career in journalism. It's an interesting book and could do with being longer and more up to date.

United Kingdom on Sep 10, 2022

Schnigglefritz: I have a long history of enjoying Geraldine Brooks' writing. Her detailed research and her excellent wordsmith skills have made her novels both engrosing and informative. This book was a complete departure from her novels. Her research remains thorough and relevant to the material she shares in this book. The book is disturbing, however, as it demonstrates the powerful forces that are unleashed in a society that is considered to be a theocracy. In particular, the powerful forces are directed towards women and their inherent rights.

If nothing else, this book serves as a warning to those who think that separation of Church and State is not a desirable thing. Please read it and consider its warnings!

Thank you for this amazing if not disturbing work, Geraldine Brooks.

Canada on Jul 22, 2022

Wennel: Another superb book by Geraldine. I was a primary teacher for eleven years in the Middle East, Qatar, Kuwait, and Dubai and have seen first hand how Muslim women live. I was not one of those expats who only socialised with other expats; I had long, but careful, exchanges with many Muslim women. This seems to me to be a fair interpretation of anything I saw. As usual, the research is outstanding!

United Kingdom on Feb 13, 2019

Clarabel123: I preferred Princess by Jean Sasson which I bought at the same time, I wanted the follow up novel to that but ended up with this as must have not removed from basket.Interesting insight into lives of arabic women, explained the religion bit more. More of a guide than a novel as each chapter different.

United Kingdom on Mar 04, 2015

Cynthia Danute Cekauskas, LCSW: As far as a comprehensive look on women living under Islam I have found no better. From the most restrictive (Saudi Arabia) to the most liberal (Egypt) one is presented with a fascinating glimpse of what it must be like to be female and to live in a Middle Eastern world. In Chapter 7 A Queen the author even writes of how an American woman (the former Lisa Halaby now Queen Noor) marries the King of Jordan, converts to Islam then having to face her own challenges adjusting to a slow-to-accept Islamic society. The author also writes of other American women married to Middle Eastern men and living in their respective countries subject to the same type of restrictions other Islamic women have had to face.

Already in the Preface of the book I was shocked to learn that the wearing of the Islamic hijab (the veiled attire) for one of the author's colleague's signified "acceptance of a legal code that valued her testimony at half the worth of a man's, an inheritance system that allowed her half the legacy of her brother, a future domestic life in which her husband could beat her if she disobeyed him, make her share her attentions with three more wives, divorce her at whim and get...

United States on Jul 14, 2011

Mr D.: This is the third book that I've read that outlines the plight of Muslim women as a whole. Yes I'm sure, there must be plenty exceptions to the brutality and inhumanity that is outlined in these books and the stories that are depicted are most likely, the worst cases the authors came across but what comes through with disturbing clarity, is a systemic, religious, abusive, misogynistic undercurrent against all women of Islam, which varies in intensity from country to country (infidel women don't even count).

Nine Parts of Desire is written by prizewinning Wall Street Journal correspondent, Geraldine Brooks and is based upon her experiences during the seven years she was stationed in the Middle East. She gets the title for her book from an old Muslim proverb "God created sexual desire in ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women and one to men."

Brooks does try to provide a more balanced view of Islam than previous authors have presented, however the bottom line remains the same - that Muslim women, in most Muslim countries, live at the whim and total dependence of their husbands or their male relatives. Brooks tries to explain and I do believe her, that this...

United States on Sep 04, 2005