Women in Muslim countries - has anybody else read these?

I still haven`t read your recommendations Gracesmum, but I will, promise. At the moment I`m reading The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, by Deborah Rodriguez, who lived in Afghanistan for a while a few years ago, and I`m quite enjoying it, despite being amazed at all the restrictions put upon women, even in the present day.

The Orphan of Islam by Alexander Khan not about women or their treatment but a child deemed too Western Autobiography, very readable and very disturbing

I have not read anything much since Lesley Blanches' famous book and The Scandalous Woman I think it was called. About an aristocrat who marries a Sheikh in Syria. She starts the first import for
a famous arab stud(Horses)!! Bookshop in Kabul ( been there and bought some post cards)
and The Kite Runner. Not what you all meant but have travelled extensively in Central Asia and the Near East. Know the conditions first hand. Will make a note of recommendations

And the Bookseller of Kabul, too, Liminetta. All great books. Is the author Khaled Hosseini?

I read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" a few months back; brilliant book, but cant remember the author.....He also wrote "The Kite Runner".

Siba Shakib where god only comes to weep.

I do bang on about Afghanistan, where God only goes to weep. It's a translation but worth googling.

Worth trying to see the new film Wajda. Women should support it as it breaks so many moulds but I fear it won't get much play time in cinemas.

Should have said, thanks for the recommendation, Gracesmum. I'm off to Amazon!

Frogs in a Well (Patricia Jeffrey) came out about 30 years ago but is a very good study of purdah life.

The treatment of women in these countries saddens and enrages me. I simply find all the true stories make me dreadfully unhappy, and they deepen my disgust with religion, especially anything fundamentalist.

I want to scream at them to celebrate life, this life, because there isn't another. I want to yell at the men that their bollocks won't drop off if they start to treat their women with dignity and respect (and do their share in the home)

I want to yell at burkah/niqab covered women to bloody grow up and get some air to their skin. They need to vitamin D from sunlight, and no-one's going to lust ofter them for removing the veil.

But I just sigh to myself and ignore them. Because to do or say anything would demean me, and make no difference to them: the brainwashing is religion-backed with cultural imperatives thrown in.

I do sign any petitions that come my way, to save a young rape victim for being lashed for adultery, for example.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Zoe Ferraris writes such great books, doesn't she? I recently read Sharaf by Raj Kumar, which was depressingly interesting, and many years ago 'Not without my daughter', also gripping and so sad. So I decided to put together some novels, about women in Muslim Countries - Saudi, in this case - I don't know if that might be of interest to this thread...

tripfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/Novels-set-in-Saudi-Arabia.html

We must not forget that immigrant workers and slaves are also, still, abused by non muslim families, and that many muslim women are treated as equals.

My OH's grand-mother was an Indonesian (Malay) slave in Cape Town in the at the turn of last century- and the apartheid system is VERY recent. My nieces and nephews and their children are devout Muslims in SA, very well educated, do not wear any special clothing and totally free. The eldest has done the Hadj with her mother and now chooses to wear a modern and colourful head covering. Her choice entirely.

I've just read a book by Kishwar Desai about a young girl accused of murdering her whole family. It is written by someone who has a blog which comments on women and politics in India and about the plight of daughters in the subcontinent. I it was a good read but grim yet hopeful.
I wish Zoe Ferraris would get on with another book.

On your recommendation, G'mum, I read all three of Zoe Ferraris' books in the right sequence and found them riveting and informative. It is a revoltingly patriarchal society and yet there appeared to be some glimmers of revolt among the female characters and some of the men appeared to be cautiously sympathetic. I prescribed City of Veils for my book group and hope they have enjoyed it. I would have preferred the Night of the Mi'raj but for some reason the Cheshire Libraries catalogue didn't show very many copies.

Thanks for the recommendation, Gracesmum - I don't have a kindle, but I will order them on Amazon, even though I know they will enrage me.
My eldest grandson worked in Dubai for a year and he was horrified by the way the young Westerners treated their domestic staff and their total ignorance of the conditions of the migrant workers.

These books are great to conjure up flavour and culture. Hilary Mantel's book is a good read too. I remember reading "Not without my Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody which had me gripped.

I think many of her earlier books are far better quality than wolf hall or bring up the bodies. Possibly because they are shorter.

Bananas Some years ago I also read Hilary Mantel's "Eight Months on Ghazza Street". I found it very gripping - and quite frightening. Although it's a novel, it was based on her experience of living in Jeddah.

I am avoiding Eurovision. Low embarrassment threshold.

Geraldine brooks who also wrote The People of the Book

They are all good. Plenty of insights into a way of life which is a closed book. Also the Ozzie who wrote March and several others I love wrote about lives of women when her husband was posted there. Well worth hunting out.(Geraldine something)

I liked your recommendation of the Shetland books, so will trust you on this one, Gracesmum.

Holding Up Half The Sky is a very good non fiction book about the plight of women in developing conutries

I just bought the first one for 1p on Amazon Marketplace, so only £2.81 q
with p and p!

Thanks gm.