BOOKS READ DECEMBER 2023

Geraldine Brooks: Nine Parts of Desire:The Hidden World of Islamic Women, p/b, Sydney, Doubleday/Anchor Books,1994.

Geraldine Brooks’ extraordinary analysis of women in Islam was based on her six years as a Western reporter, under the most challenging of circumstances and during events of considerable danger. Now thirty six years later, some things in some countries have changed but this amazing story still provides an exceptional and closely informed insight into the mystery and the challenge of Islam in many countries around the world. Reading this narrative in 2003 at, the height of the Israel-Hamas war simply underlines the horror and trauma of wars of faith and nationality.  

 

The distortion of Islamic teaching resulting in genital mutilation of women including clitoridectomy and pre-wedding hymen replacement is difficult to read about as is the hunting down of writers including Nawal Saadawi and Farag Foda.  In addition the inequality between the freedoms of men and those of women in Islam is equally disturbing. On the other hand there are many attractions in the teaching of Islam which appeal to people of many nations, making Islam one of the most popular of all religious faiths.

Geraldine Brooks covers a range of issues including the importance of women being veiled in public, wedding regulations, changes from Muhammad’s original teaching, the many converts to Islam, women as Jihadist warriors, the complexity of Jordan’s King Hussein and his marriage to an American woman – Queen Lisa Halaby, Islamic radicalism, the risk of refusing the veil, the rape and torture of nations like the Kurds, the challenge of Islamic female athletes competing for the Olympics, Islamic dancers, and many other issues.

This is a disturbing and deeply challenging work from a person who has spent six years in the front line of Islamic and Western debate. 5 stars and rising

Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses: A Novel;  Henry Holt, New York, 1997 (1988). 

Complex high octane novel which almost costRushdie his life on three separate occasions and did cost the life of his Japanese translator. The attacks were due to the fatwa declared against Rushdie in February 1989 by the late Shia Muslim Iranian President the Ayaotollah Khomeini. The reason for the fatwa was that Khomeini believed that the novel contained blasphemous material about Islam and the prophet Muhammad. Although the President eventually distanced himself from the fatwa it has never been lifted.

Rushdie’s novel centres on two humans with angelic powers both of whom were the only survivors of a major aircraft explosion. The two characters were both Indian born but spent most of their lives after childhood as British citizens. Gibreel Farishta was an Indian superstar actor and allegedly the “good” angel. Saladin Chamcha also worked in the film industry in the technical area and was allegedly the “bad” angel. 

The novel centres on the lives and loves of these two characters including their personal interactions with each other. The novel paints a rather unhappy picture of the lives of Indian nationals trying to make a go of life in late C20th London alongside the historical material on Islam. 

Rushdie clearly has a wide grasp of Indian and British society and a far-reaching knowledge of English literature which he makes use of on a regular basis. There are passages in the novel which could almost be regarded as lists of things literary, social behaviour, gang behaviour and several other political, artistic and humorous happenings. These events are too numerous and complex for the reader to spend much time trying to sort out what is happening. I think Rushdie wants us to move on and generally just get the gist of each situation. Someone who has lived on the darker side of British Indian relations might have more clues about what is happening. 

I read and enjoyed Rushdie’s powerful prizewinning Midnight’s Children some years ago but I cannot recommend this novel. The high powered sexual imagery is, I believe, unnecessary for his purpose. Some of the complexity of his “lists” and crazy event images looks more like “see how much I know about literature, London’s underground and Indian behaviour in Britain”. The Islamic history is powerfully written and interesting in its own right but doesn’t seem to have any clear link with the rest of the narrative. There is an important story about religion hidden in this book but in my view Rushdie has wasted a good opportunity. 3 Stars.