I think that Arab women are smart, funny, and attractive.

Why do they wear those sacks over their head?

to
Belinda from No. Virginia:
islamic man and islamic woman these two words show the man of taqwa.but what you are saying that is not right.evry muslim man is not like the man of non islamic way of living.if some man in the name of islam is doing cruelty then it is not fault of islam.same way if some woman not living according to islam the also not islam fault.islam is religion which starts with individualism and ends with collectivism.so all those who think that they are follwing islam and other not,that will be decided by the god in the last day of judgment.islam accept the right of woman in the society but islam cannot allow woman to turn the society in the brothel house through modern vulger culture.islam is not forcing any body to accept the norm.islam is giving free choice of will to live.live like a man or woman of taqwa or man and woman of corrupt moral.here muslim cannot allow any individual to impose his own way of living as model for true islam.and ask other to follow.if they cannot follow the islam of true muslim in the same way he cannot impose other.
democracy is lolly pop of all day dreamer of freedom.go and see the vulnerabale life of people living in democracy.and in the world of globalisation democracy is nothing but political extention of multi national companies which determing the life of the people of the nation.democracy is method where 51 fools rule over 50 intellectual in the name of majority.

The dream of novelist cannot have an appeal in real politic.The book is really good for lover of peace but cannot be a model of present power broker of the middle east.let present such a book which based on realistic situation of the area.

AND ASIF:

yes frank is frank collins as i have said many times.
and yes i am an indian - a feather indian, not a dot indian. and for you - again - that means new mexico not new dheli.

but i dont mind you thinking im some india indian - thank you for the compliment.

AND DO YOU HAVE ANY PROOF THAT I HAVE NOT POSTED THE TRUTH? LETS SEE IS BOY.
POST MY COMMENT - MAKE IT A QUOTE AND LINK TO IT. THEN POST WHAT YOUR VERSION IS AND LINK TO A VALID SOURCE. AND THEN WE CAN TALK.

UNTIL THEN GO BACK TO YOUR CAMEL.

WHEN I POST A LIE POINT IT OUT
OTHERWISE STFU

Jannah bint Hannah:

As a practicing Christian, I'm actually encouraged by the Islamic party position in Turkey on hijab. Since the time of Ataturk, the seculars have forbidden or heavily discouraged hijab, so it is actually a religious freedom issue that women should be able to practice in the way they want to. Perhaps that's the way it stands in some parts of Pakistan, too, I guess, but not the NW Frontier!!

Frank:
Its summer time.
Pick up a good book and read.
Forget about Middle East Oil and Middle Eastern Prophets.
Drill your own hole (for oil), and find your own Prophets (from New York,London or Paris).
It is amazing that in spite of such great achievements in Science and Arts,neither Europe nor America has produced its own Prophets.

Middle Eastern monopoly on Oil and Religions continues!
It has fried your brains!

I'm enjoying "DOUBT:A History",
By Jennifer Michael Hecht
tracing the history of Doubt from Socrates and Jesus,
to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson,
and all the stops along the way,including doubters
Epictetus and Lucretius,
and Voltaire and Dostoyevsky.
550 pages

I have chosen to stay in Islam and work on feminism from within, but honestly I can't blame Ayaan Hirsi Ali for her choices in life. All personal matters like how to believe, what to wear, whom to love, are the right of each individual woman to decide for herself, without coercion by male authority figures. Millions of Muslim women currently live in situations where they can't exercise the right to choose how to live their lives, but when they wake up, look out.

I'm religiously observant, I don't wear hijab... If a sister chooses to wear the hijab, I support her right to do so, if she chooses not to wear it, I support her right to that too. The point is, she gets to decide, not men.

Anonymous = Frank = Frank Collins = Man Singh = Indian Hindu = ..... = We know who you are

Bug off

islams love for their women

"Wife Beating in Islam - No more than 10 blows!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2VEBE-qX8&mode=related&search=

and this litle bit of love

Wife Beating in Islam - "Men have authority over women"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJkmRBEOC3o&mode=related&search=

got to love islam and how they treat what should be their best friends.

now i see. most islamics cannot handle the truth about the cult of islam and others understand that islam terrorizes not only other religions but their own women.
what do you expect from a cult that tells the men they will never have anything so dont ask for it and then gives them the power of something - women.

on again off again - make up your minds

Good luck with that - honestly not snarkish. What do you think of Ayaan Hirsi Ali - bold enough but has left Islam?

I am a radical feminist Muslim woman. My heroes are strong, bold women who challenge gender inequality in Islam, like Amina Wadud and Asra Nomani.

My snark is not drowning out intelligent conversation. It is speaking truth to power. What do you stand for - Jannah Hannah - are you one of my "lucky" women enlightened to show the way to power thru victimhood, or another Belinda who won't stand for it?

Belinda, he was posting sarcasm. These forums are overrun by haters who have nothing better to do with their time but attempt to drown out intelligent dialogue of civilizations with snark. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on.

I'm sorry Robert but I have to disagree; you wrote ' Islamic men do not oppress their women, they protect them from these horrors"... perhaps that is how you perceive it, but I know from personal experience that Islamic men do oppress their women, in the name of Allah and it's wrong and abusive. The oppression is so great because they know that once the women figure out what's going on, they will fight against it and then there would be no more control, oppression, plus - who would cook, clean, rear the children and serve the men? It is control and domination and you are afraid of the West because democracy would allow the women to be free from their slavery, insha-allah (God willing).

I'm sorry Robert but I have to disagree; you wrote ' Islamic men do not oppress their women, they protect them from these horrors"... perhaps that is how you perceive it, but I know from personal experience that Islamic men do oppress their women, in the name of Allah and it's wrong and abusive. The oppression is so great because they know that once the women figure out what's going on, they will fight against it and then there would be no more control, oppression, plus - who would cook, clean, rear the children and serve the men? It is control and domination and you are afraid of the West because democracy would allow the women to be free from their slavery, insha-allah.

Frank, don't you know? Repression and victimhood of all peoples comes from the marginalization of pacific and pastoral local cultures by the Western juggernaut. There are 3 prongs - the horror of being connected economically to the West, the Zionist mythology backed by Christian fanatics, and the Jewish control of media and corporations. Any and all oppression is due to those things. Islamic men do not oppress their women, they protect them from these horrors. A women blessed by Allah to appropriate enlightenment of these issues can be trusted with sharing how Arab women are in danger!! Get with the program.

according to islamic men on the other sites your lives are just great and you all love it.
is there a problem here?

Am I not the only one getting mixed messages about Islam? One article says Islam extolls freedom of choice, The next says Islam censors women.

Someone's not being entirely truthful here. But what do I expect It's WaPo.

As thousands of people go to bed hungry each night the issue of global poverty is more serious than ever and it can be changed, there are strategies in place to end global poverty. The United States agreed to support the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, a plan to end global poverty by 2015, however according to the Borgen Project the funding to support the end of malnutrition and starvation is under funded by $19 billion annually. Congress needs to become aware of these important issues and make a change.

Thank you for your recommendation. I will read it. Right now I'm enjoying Orhan Palmuk's Snow, which as you may know is a fictional account about a mysterious spate of suicides among veiled women in turkey. (Palmuk is a turkish male who won the Nobel Prize). I really like it and would be curious to know what others here think of it.

Thank you

I'm currently reading Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan al-Shaykh (translation of Misk al-ghazal) and have found it an amazing view of Arab women's lives, I'm grateful to her for giving readers a window into a closed world. I admire Ms. Hanan for the boldness of her writing and her willingness to face attacks for being an outspoken Arab woman challenging the patriarchy. I appreciate Assia Djebar's writing for the same reason, and look forward to exploring more Arab women's literature.

I'm just starting The Lemon Tree. It looks great.

Recently finished Once Upon A Country by Sari Nusseibeh, an autobiography. The guy's family has lived in Jerusalem for over a thousand years. Another great read.

I completely agree with Ms. Andoni, The Lemon Tree is an excellent book to get to the roots of the Palestinian Israeli conflict. It is a very passionately written book and would be great on anyone's summer reading list.