Beyond the Veil, Revised Edition: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society Paperback – April 22, 1987

Must read for any scholar of Islam.

Well written.

Can't wait to read all the pages.

Although this revised version appeared quite a while ago (1987), the book still offers fascinating insights on how, in a patriarchal-polygynous context, the old double-standard of male sexual license and female sexual confinement may backfire--despite religious/ideological rationalizations.On the larger issue of the historical origins of gender-inequality, the author notes that tribal Arab society before Islam was generally matrilineal (descent traced through the female line), with female independence and sexual freedom to the extent that the ultimate question of biological paternity was generally unimportant. Anthropologists will be reminded of the famous ideas of Malinowski along these lines (as well as those of Friedrich Engels). One also recalls how patriarchal monotheism, in various cultural contexts, historically consolidated male dominance and obliterated nature-deities associated with the feminine and fertility.

I am a Muslim Iranian-American born in NY and raised in Mashhad, Iran. Very very well written book. I am speechless.

I am grateful to Ms. Mernissi for this scholarly review. The critique that this reads like a term paper reflects the serious scholarship and the edition I read published by Indian University Press was worthy to be read. This is not a light, superficial examination. I especially appreciated the clear explanation of how the repression of the feminine has its roots in the long history of Islam but there is a countervailing trend that sought and still seeks to establish true equality for women.Education as a catalyst for the changes that are ensuing for women's rights throughout the Muslim world was well presented. I wish Mernissi had more fully explored the theme of Freud's passive view of the feminine as it contrasts with the propensity in Islam to deal with the more active feminine sexuality through overt repression.Mernissi notes that "While Muslim exploitation of the female [feminine principle] is cloaked under veils and hidden behind walls, Western exploitation has had the bad taste of being bare and over-exposed." Today it seems modesty has been abandoned in the West. The underpinnings of the "hijab" and veiling are presented by Mernissi with a perspective that clearly aligns with feminist tradition and the movement to fully enfranchise women in society.This is a work of true scholarship that helps frame the subject of the veil and the "hijab" (note the term "hijab" refers both to the covering of the head and the entire realm of modesty designed to avoid arousing chaos within the Muslim community by women who are not covered). The updated Introduction is very helpful but I would like to see a more recently updated Preface to the book.

When this book originally appeared, I did write a review and got in published in print media. In her work, I was happy to have been introduced for the first time from a pen of (western, muslim, voracious) female writer as to how this gender looked at Islam. I am glad that Fatima continues to provide interesting insights, and she is striving to keep people informed on the subject.

Wow! This book really raises some serious, thought-provoking questions regarding female sexual status, and sexual self-determination in Arab-Muslim societies. If I had read this book in the 70s - when it was first written and published - I would have really thought of it as a classic work, but I wasn't born then.Yet, the book is incredibly outdated. Mernissi does a good job in questioning the general notions (and misconceptions) widespread in her days about religion and the inferiority of women. However, she is out of touch with the contemporary revolutionary ideas that claimed Islam back from the selfish authority of the benighted "Mullahs," who misinterpted Islam out of ignorance, or to fulfill their own political agendas (as still happening in some Muslim countries, wherein Muslim women are subjugated and denied basic rights, such as education.)Working at the courts in my conservative Gulf country, I witnessed cases in which women "self-determinedly" divorced their husbands, who could not satisfy them sexually. (Lol, awww! I can't believe I'm saying this!)Even with some historical and Islamic inaccuracies (for instance, many hadiths - Prophetic traditions - quoted by Mernissi have been outruled as inauthentic by contemporary Islamic scholars, thus invalidating many of her arguments and theories), I found this book to be very interesting, and it sheds light - though indirectly, and perhaps unintentionally - on Moroccan history and culture. The chapter on Mothers-in-Law was especially amusing!It is unfair to criticize the book without taking into consideration the fact that it was written decades ago, and until the latest edition (1985), it must have been current. Instead of complaining about the book and its outdated content, I think I'll just go ahead and write a well-researched book on the same topic!