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A review by amandalorianxo
It's Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
I'm going to preface this by saying I wasn't one hundred percent what to expect when I picked up this book. Fortunately, I'm glad I did. I was able to absorb and learn more than I originally thought about not only the Muslim faith but how much the media distorts so much of what we are told.
"For too long, Islam has been interpreted through the eyes of men." - this is an exact quote from one of the writers in the Chapter "A Woman of Substance." That quote stuck out to me (amongst others) in this essay. Despite me not being a Muslim myself - I learned and absorbed a lot of facts in this chapter about divorce that I was ignorant about previously when it came to divorce laws.
In Essay 1 - I definitely can see where Mona Eltahawy is coming from when she talked about how the right wing racists (the men) are quick to ignore that misogyny is not exclusive to Muslim men. For centuries - the patriarchy has always made up the rules and been the “voice” for women even though they have no idea what it’s like to be us nor do they find a problem in mistreating us when we aren’t “following their rules.” Why should they have the final say when women were never treated as equals in the first place.
Essay 2 - I definitely think a lot of older generation - mostly the boomers and maybe the gen x - was raised in somewhat Uber traditionally home values and there was sort of this group mindset where if you weren’t part of those values - you were immediately fair game to discuss/talk about even though it seems a little hypocritical to me when “gossip” shouldn’t be valued so high or encouraged so much. This definitely felt more like a personal chapter compared to some of the others but the insight was helpful.
I have to go back to my notebook to find more quotes that stuck out to me but I'm grateful to have been able to learn more than I ever have during my time in school.
"For too long, Islam has been interpreted through the eyes of men." - this is an exact quote from one of the writers in the Chapter "A Woman of Substance." That quote stuck out to me (amongst others) in this essay. Despite me not being a Muslim myself - I learned and absorbed a lot of facts in this chapter about divorce that I was ignorant about previously when it came to divorce laws.
In Essay 1 - I definitely can see where Mona Eltahawy is coming from when she talked about how the right wing racists (the men) are quick to ignore that misogyny is not exclusive to Muslim men. For centuries - the patriarchy has always made up the rules and been the “voice” for women even though they have no idea what it’s like to be us nor do they find a problem in mistreating us when we aren’t “following their rules.” Why should they have the final say when women were never treated as equals in the first place.
Essay 2 - I definitely think a lot of older generation - mostly the boomers and maybe the gen x - was raised in somewhat Uber traditionally home values and there was sort of this group mindset where if you weren’t part of those values - you were immediately fair game to discuss/talk about even though it seems a little hypocritical to me when “gossip” shouldn’t be valued so high or encouraged so much. This definitely felt more like a personal chapter compared to some of the others but the insight was helpful.
I have to go back to my notebook to find more quotes that stuck out to me but I'm grateful to have been able to learn more than I ever have during my time in school.
Content Warnings
Minor: Islamophobia, Mental illness, and Domestic abuse