The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom [Hardcover]

Full disclosure: I helped research the contents of chapter 7, concerning the effects of Islamic treatment of women in the West. I will confine my comments to the rest of this book.

In chapter four, Phyllis Chesler tells the story of her captivity in Kabul as the wife of an Afghan national. Although an Orthodox Jewish American girl, she married her college sweetheart in the summer of 1961 in New York state. He just happened to be a Muslim. In telling her story, she hopes to "help other westerners understand and empathize with Muslim and Arab women (and men) who are increasingly being held hostage to barbarous and reactionary customs."

This is not only a laudable feminist goal, the story that Chesler tells is a compelling one. When she returned from her captivity in Afghanistan on December 21, 1961, she literally kissed the ground at Idewild (now Kennedy) Airport. When she had landed in Kabul as Ali's new foreign, American and Jewish bride, officials confiscated her passport, which she never saw again. Upon her arrival, her westernized husband "simply became another person." He barely spoke to her, and treated her with annoyed embarrassment, coldness and distance.

Ali had never mentioned that his father was polygamous. But upon arrival in Kabul, Chesler was consigned to live with Ali's mother Aishah, or "Beebee Jan" (Dear Lady), whom his father had long since abandoned for his third wife. There came a time when Chesler was no longer allowed to slip out of her house unattended. She immediately went to the American Embassy, right next to the family compound. When she could not produce her passport, the Marines would escort her home, telling her that as "the wife of an Afghan national" she was no longer entitled to American protection.

Beebee Jan stopped the servants from boiling Chesler's drinking water and washing all the fruits and vegetables. She allowed the cooks to use only rancid ghee (animal fat). Chesler lost weight rapidly. She began to starve. She contracted hepatitis, turned yellow and vomited continuously. She kept demanding to see an American doctor. At last, she was sent to the new Tom Dooley hospital, where the English-speaking doctor told her "you are very sick and you have to get out of here." Her mother-in-law tried to pull out the IV prescribed to deliver vitamins and nutrients.

At last, her father-in-law was summoned. Seeing that her illness and departure would be a victory over his westernized son Ali, Agha Jan (Dear Master) told her he knew of her plans to escape with the help of a German wife. But he thought it best if she left with the family's approval, on an Afghan passport, which he handed her on the spot, along with a plane ticket. She flew via Aeroflot, via Tashkent, to Moscow, and finally on to New York. She survived, she now thinks, in part so she could "tell other westerners something about what it's like for a woman and an infidel to live under Islam." Islamists insist on religious freedom for themselves in the West but refuse it to westerners living in the East. And Islamists are now in "an accelerated jihad mode and are exercising all their trans-cultural options."

In effect, Chesler is concerned that while Islamists are beheading Jews and American civilians, stoning Muslim women to death, jailing Muslim dissidents and bombing civilians on every continent, feminists are stuck in a rut that blames all this violence on Israel and U.S. imperialism. For that, she should not be faulted, but applauded.

She also bemoans the Islamization of the West. This ongoing process "involves profound cultural, religious and class differences" that severely imperil "a pluralist, democratic, and modern but class-based and historically racist civilization." She worries what will happen to feminists, and indeed all of us, when "anti-modern, anti-western, and anti-tolerant class-based and historically racist cultures come to live among" us.

In one especially fine chapter, Chesler details what Arab, Muslim and Middle Eastern women have to say about their lives today. She writes of Merry Merrell, a Syrian-American feminist, a poet and counselor who lives in Boston and London. According to Merrell, "It is vital for western feminists to say the truth about women living under Islam because of the new ways in which the Left's sympathies with Islamist perpetrators has confused and silenced to many." Chesler also discusses Egyptian-American Nonie Darwish, raised as a Muslim, whose father trained Palestinians to kill Israelis. Writes Darwish, "this graceful country allowed me to practice any religion and gave me human rights I could only [have] dreamed of under Islam." And she praises Homa Arjmand, who (subsequent to publication) defeated the adoption of Sharia law in Ontario family courts.

Many heart-rending stories of Muslim women elucidate these points. But where, Chesler asks, are western feminists in this fight against radical Islam? For the most part, she mourns, no where to be found.

This accurate, albeit at times personal, account of the current ills of the feminist movement is a critical study that cries out to be read, and read again.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

Chesler's no nonsense style is articulate, clear and free of the cliche-isms that mar a lot of feminist discourse. This important book personalizes the plight of women's status in the Islamic culture and shames a lot of western feminists for tunnel vision and indifference to this issue.

The story of her personal captivity (1961) as a wife in the family of a high status clan in Afghanistan is compelling both as a genesis of her feminist ideals and in understanding her sympathetic compassion that leads her to speaking out on this subject now. I appreciate that she neither belabors this frightening episode nor displays her views as an ongoing vendetta. Even more, I like her healthy balance and attempts at rapprochement across the political spectrum for the greater good. We could use more of that!

There is much to add to this subject. For example, Chesler touches on Muslim women who are speaking out. But to do it justice that's a subject of another book. This one is packed with enough to read it twice and I highly recommend you do!

I was born and raised as a Muslim woman in Egypt and I salute Dr. Chesler's accurate and sensitive portayal of Muslim culture. Muslim women can read this book with an open mind. I believe that it helps greatly to see our culture from the eyes of an outsider. I dissagree with the comments made by the Egyptian lady who wrote a previous comment. We cannot just dismiss Dr. Chesler's great research and observations just because she is not Muslim or because she supports Israel. That would be very narrow minded and self defeating. We all come from different backgrounds and have our biases. But what we must face as Middle Eastern woman is the fact that in the Muslim world women are suffering and have challenges to overcome. We don't have to emulate the West 100%, but we certainly can support human rights and equality for our oppressed sisters back in the old culture. We cannot just reject and attack such a valuable book on the basis that it was written by someone you dissagree with politically or religiously. The stakes are too high and our culture needs the help of educated Arabs. The built in anger in Muslim families is causing turmoil in Muslim society that has no peace. This anger is the result of oppression of women. It is not only Muslim women who suffer as a result, it is men too and thus the whole family and society. I appreciate Dr. Chelser's insights. She reminded me of many things about my culture that I have burried in my memory years ago. Even though Egypt is not exacly like Afghanistan, but I saw the similarities. Thank you

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 27 reviews  3.6 out of 5 stars