Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Persepolis : The Story of a Childhood

by Marjane Satrapi

A New York Times Notable Book A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year” A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow... (more)

Reading "Lolita" in Tehran

by Azar Nafisi

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their... (more)

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

by Geraldine Brooks

In this captivating book, award-winning journalist Geraldine Brooks offers an intimate, often shocking portrait of the lives of modern Muslim women, and shows how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once-liberating faith. "A valid, entertaining account of women in the Muslim world."--The New York Times Book Review.

Sweetness in the Belly: A Novel

by Camilla Gibb, Roger D. Launius

Like Brick Lane and The Kite Runner , Camilla Gibb’s widely praised new novel is a poignant and intensely atmospheric look beyond the stereotypes of Islam. After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco. As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar, Ethiopia, where she teaches Qur’an to children and falls in love with an idealistic doctor. But even swathed... (more)

Mirage

by Soheir Khashoggi

Amira, a girl from a wealthy and powerful family, expects to be sold into marriage and to never step outsider her house without being swathed in black veils. But she's not prepared for the savagery of the husband she first meets on her wedding night. In a daring attempt to save her own life, she escapes with her baby to start a new life in the United States. But her past--and her powerful husband--won't give her... (more)

Embroideries

by Marjane Satrapi

From the best–selling author of Persepolis comes this gloriously entertaining and enlightening look into the sex lives of Iranian women. Embroideries gathers together Marjane’s tough–talking grandmother, stoic mother, glamorous and eccentric aunt and their friends and neighbors for an afternoon of tea drinking and talking. Naturally, the subject turns to love, sex and the vagaries of men. As the afternoon... (more)

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood

Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood

by Fatima Marnissi

”I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco...” So begins Fatima Mernissi in this exotic and rich narrative of a childhood behind the iron gates of a domestic harem. In Dreams of Trespass , Mernissi weaves her own memories with the dreams and memories of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her youth—women who, deprived of access to the world outside, recreated it from sheer imagination. Dreams of... (more)

Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society

Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society

by Fatima Marnissi

"Required reading... " -- Elizabeth Fernea, The University of Texas at Austin "If a reader were to select only one book in order to gain insight into women's status and prospects in Islamic society, this study should be the one chosen for its clarity, honesty, depth of knowledge and thought-provoking qualities." -- Arab Book World In this expanded and updated edition, with a new introduction on Muslim women and... (more)

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

by Marjane Satrapi

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day,” Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials... (more)

Princess

A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

by Jean Sasson

PRINCES: A TRUE STORY OF LIFE BEHIND THE VEIL IN SAUDI ARABIA describes the life of Princess Sultana Al Sa'ud, a princess in the royal house of Saudi Arabia. Hidden behind her black veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, and her country. Sultana tells of appalling oppressions, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations:... (more)

My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban - A Young Woman's Story

My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban - A Young Woman's Story

by Latifa

Born into a middle-class Afghan family in Kabul in 1980, Latifa had a conventional childhood. Then, Taliban soldiers seized power in Kabul. And from that moment, Latifa, just sixteen, became a prisoner in her own home. The simplest and most basic freedoms were forbidden. She was forced to put on a chadri, the state-mandated uniform that covered her entire body. Disbelief at having to hide herself was soon replaced... (more)

In the Name of Honor: A Memoir

by Mukhtar Mai

In June 2002, journalists throughout the world began to hear of the gang rape of a Pakistani woman from the impoverished village of Meerwala. The rape was ordered by a local clan known as the Mastoi and was arranged as punishment for indiscretions allegedly committed by the woman's brother. While certainly not the first account of a female body being negotiated for honor in a family, and (sadly) not the... (more)

Woman At Point Zero

by Nawa?l Sa?da?wi?

"All the men I did get to know, every single man of them, has filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face. But because I am a woman I have never had the courage to lift my hand. And because I am a prostitute, I hid my fear under layers of make-up." --Excerpt

Haveli (Laurel Leaf Books)

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

The world of Newbery Honor book Shabanu is vividly re-created in this novel of a young Pakistani woman's heartbreaking struggle against the tyranny of custom and ancient law. Shabanu, now a mother at 18, faces daily challenges to her position in her husband's household, even as she plans for her young daughter's education and uncertain future. Then, during a visit to the haveli, their home in the city of... (more)

Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality

Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality

Voices of Resistance is a diverse collection of personal narratives and prose by Muslim women whose experiences and observations are particularly poignant in today's politically and religiously charged environment. The contributors in this anthology hail from Yemen, Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Canada, and the United States. Sarah Husain... (more)

Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

by Leila Ahmed

This book presents an historical overview of women and gender in Islam. It is written from a feminist perspective, using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies. The results of its investigations cast new light on the issues covered.

Ten Things I Hate About Me

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

"At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I can't keep it up for much longer..." Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's... (more)

Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical & Modern Stereotypes

Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical & Modern Stereotypes

by Katherine Bullock

A powerful critique of the popular western notion that the veil is a symbol of Muslim women's oppression. In postulating a positive theory of the hijâb, the author challenges with great sophistication both the commonly held view of Muslim women being subjugated by men, as well as the liberal feminists’ who criticize the choice of women to cover themselves as ultimately unliberating. The author argues that in a... (more)

Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion, and Space

Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion, and Space

This groundbreaking volume explores how Islamic discourse and practice intersect with gender relations and broader political and economic processes to shape women's geographies in a variety of regional contexts. Contributors represent a wide range of disciplinary subfields and perspectives--cultural geography, political geography, development studies, migration studies, and historical geography--yet they share a... (more)

Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation

Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation

by Barbara Freyer Stowasser

Islamic ideas about women and their role in society spark considerable debate both in the Western world and in the Islamic world itself. Despite the popular attention surrounding Middle Eastern attitudes toward women, there has been little systematic study of the statements regarding women in the Qur'an. Stowasser fills the void with this study on the women of Islamic sacred history. By telling their stories in... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: muslim women

by Marjane Satrapi

by Azar Nafisi

by Geraldine Brooks

by Camilla Gibb, Roger D. Launius

by Soheir Khashoggi

by Marjane Satrapi

by Fatima Marnissi

by Fatima Marnissi

by Marjane Satrapi

A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

by Jean Sasson

by Latifa

by Mukhtar Mai

by Nawa?l Sa?da?wi?

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

by Leila Ahmed

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

by Katherine Bullock

by Barbara Freyer Stowasser