Jolisa Gilmore

WMST 4316.01 Women and the Law

March 30, 2015
Book Report
Believing Women in Islam was about the attempt of author Asma Barlas to debunk the
widely accepted notion that women who practiced the Islamic faith are oppressed and
their religion is essentially misogynistic and patriarchal. While this argument has been the
subject of debate by other Muslim women, Barlas took a different approach by writing a
book that enforces her reasoning in a way that is understandable and accessible to
Muslims and non-Muslims alike. She accomplishes this by providing background
information into the Quran (the sacred text of Islam) and explaining language that would
be unfamiliar to non-Muslim readers. She also counters the notions that Muslim women
are oppressed by their faith by forcing readers to take a look at where this school of
thought originated from (Western propaganda) and why it is that this particular faith is
more closely scrutinized for its rhetoric concerning women than other religions tend to
be.
The central arguments of the book was sexual inequality and long history of
discrimination against women.
My overall praise of this book was that I felt as if it did a good job of persuading the
reader to look more closely into Islam before forming an opinion on how patriarchal or
oppressive it is towards women, especially as an outsider who does not practice the same
religion. However, I felt as if the author relied very heavily on outside sources to prove
her assertions. While it is good practice to have sources that are verifiable to prove your
claims, there should be balance between how much of your work is sources and how
much is your own words in my opinion. The large amount of outside sources used in the

reading could perhaps be justified by the circumstance of Barlas making this a book that
is accessible to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, but all of the outside quotes made
me feel as if I were reading an article with too many writers at times. I also found myself
having to read certain sections of the book multiple times to comprehend what was being
said because of the higher level diction being used.