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stadeline's review against another edition
3.0
Je n'ai pas appris grand chose même si le récit de cette féministe libanaise reste assez intéressant. Le style incisif et "choquant" peut lasser. Après il me semble que les féministes occidentales ne sont pas vraiment la cible de ce livre, qui vise plutôt à faire bouger les lignes au Moyen Orient où les manifestations du sexisme ne sont pas forcément les mêmes qu'en Europe. En ça je pense que le livre rempli sa mission.
qa3110's review against another edition
3.0
Good in places but at times the author seems to place the west on such big pedestal. It's also telling/interesting to note that all the books she recommends for further reading are by European/US writers.
kev_nickells's review against another edition
4.0
She's described as 'Lebanon's Germaine Greer' on the sleeve and it's partway correct, in that she's got a great line in gobshitery. But she's also not like Greer in the way that you probably want her to be not like Greer.
This is possibly closer to pop-feminism than academic stuff, but only insofar as her tone is a lot more engaging, journalistic and her points pithy, witty. I picked it up because I'm interested in perspectives on feminism from outside of the UK. Lebanon isn't so far away in lots of regards but there's plenty I don't know much about - Islam-informed jurisprudence in Arabic countries. And while she's a Catholic there's a good amount of knowledge on Islamic and Arabic history and how it ends up being a shitty stick for women.
It's interesting - and apologies if I'm not wording this carefully - to read someone's perspective on (culturally or politically) enforced female modesty in Arabic countries - I see people writing about this but typically not from a culture or country that practices it, so it reads like white saviourism rather than actual feminism. But also she quotes Hitchens a few times so I'm not entirely sold.
It's ultimately about the breakdown in communications between genders, her disappointment at discrepancies in sexualities for straight men and women. She's explicitly not TERFy but doesn't go far into queer positions - which is, y'know, fair enough. While there's plenty here that is stuff that's fairly well-heeled - the duplicity of the male gaze, the impossibility of the slut/virgin expectation - she's really tastefully about reconciliation. She doesn't think men or women are specifically bad but that everyone's capable of doing better.
Worth a flutter if you fancy, and it's only wee.
This is possibly closer to pop-feminism than academic stuff, but only insofar as her tone is a lot more engaging, journalistic and her points pithy, witty. I picked it up because I'm interested in perspectives on feminism from outside of the UK. Lebanon isn't so far away in lots of regards but there's plenty I don't know much about - Islam-informed jurisprudence in Arabic countries. And while she's a Catholic there's a good amount of knowledge on Islamic and Arabic history and how it ends up being a shitty stick for women.
It's interesting - and apologies if I'm not wording this carefully - to read someone's perspective on (culturally or politically) enforced female modesty in Arabic countries - I see people writing about this but typically not from a culture or country that practices it, so it reads like white saviourism rather than actual feminism. But also she quotes Hitchens a few times so I'm not entirely sold.
It's ultimately about the breakdown in communications between genders, her disappointment at discrepancies in sexualities for straight men and women. She's explicitly not TERFy but doesn't go far into queer positions - which is, y'know, fair enough. While there's plenty here that is stuff that's fairly well-heeled - the duplicity of the male gaze, the impossibility of the slut/virgin expectation - she's really tastefully about reconciliation. She doesn't think men or women are specifically bad but that everyone's capable of doing better.
Worth a flutter if you fancy, and it's only wee.
nxunz's review against another edition
4.0
Very nice book! Joumana Haddad denounces the society as it is with no filters! Even though I do not agree with the entirety of the book, the matters in it are worth mentionning and worth talking about (and should be talked about)!
thelibraryduck's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
2.5
khader's review against another edition
4.0
قوة الكلمات... هكذا ختمت جمانة حداد هذا الكتاب القوي جداً دون اي مبالغة، لا اعتقد ان بامكان الجميع ان يتقبل ما كتبته حداد بين سطور سوبر مان عربي، ولا اتوقع من هذا العالم العربي المهترئ ان يتقبلها وهي تنفي وجود الله وتقنعك بالحادها باسلوب يملك من الحقيقة والحق ما هو صحيح، كما لا اتوقع من رجال العالم العربي ان يغيروا رأيهم بين ليلة وضاحها حول حق المرأة في كل ما ذكره الكتاب، لا انكر ان حداد كانت متطرفة في بعض الاراء ولكني اعرف وادرك من اين اتى كل هذا، انه من الظلم والقهر الذي لحق بالمرأة عبر السنوات ولا زال.
ما اتوقعه واتمناه ان يقرأ العالم العربي هذا الكتاب، ان يعرف ان هناك كاتبة من لبنان تكتب وتصرخ بين سطورها حول كل ما نخافه، من دين وسياسية وزيجات فاشلة ومؤسسة زواج بنيت على اساس فاشل، على المعتقدات البالية التي اتعتبت وانهكت هذا العالم العربي ونسائه تحديداً، عن السياسية التي لا تفعل شيئاً سوى تقسيمنا وجعلنا نطرح ارضاً كل شيء وندوس عليه .
واذا كنت اتمنى شيئاً، فاتمنى من نساء العالم العربي ان يقرأن هذا الكتاب ويأخذن من قوة واصرار جمانة حداد.
ما اتوقعه واتمناه ان يقرأ العالم العربي هذا الكتاب، ان يعرف ان هناك كاتبة من لبنان تكتب وتصرخ بين سطورها حول كل ما نخافه، من دين وسياسية وزيجات فاشلة ومؤسسة زواج بنيت على اساس فاشل، على المعتقدات البالية التي اتعتبت وانهكت هذا العالم العربي ونسائه تحديداً، عن السياسية التي لا تفعل شيئاً سوى تقسيمنا وجعلنا نطرح ارضاً كل شيء وندوس عليه .
واذا كنت اتمنى شيئاً، فاتمنى من نساء العالم العربي ان يقرأن هذا الكتاب ويأخذن من قوة واصرار جمانة حداد.
emanon_'s review against another edition
I don’t know how to rate this book. It was a good one, insightful - I brought pain and sadness toward a topic I feel detached from.
Being at a stage of my life where identifying as Arab has become significantly more meaningful and more important to me is quite good but then again - I read something like this book and I’m hit with the truth I’ve been trying to avoid. The Arab work has not progressed… at all and I know that, everyone knows that but people forget. That’s why reads like this are important. It’s sad to be reminded that the country you’re from - that’s supposed to be modern and with it’s time in comparison to the Syrias, Egypts and Saudis of the world is still so behind on common human rights and acknowledgments…
It’s a difficult book in the sense that it can take in a roll of thoughts but it’s easy in the sense that the writer knows how to express herself well.
I recommend. Do read it :).
Being at a stage of my life where identifying as Arab has become significantly more meaningful and more important to me is quite good but then again - I read something like this book and I’m hit with the truth I’ve been trying to avoid. The Arab work has not progressed… at all and I know that, everyone knows that but people forget. That’s why reads like this are important. It’s sad to be reminded that the country you’re from - that’s supposed to be modern and with it’s time in comparison to the Syrias, Egypts and Saudis of the world is still so behind on common human rights and acknowledgments…
It’s a difficult book in the sense that it can take in a roll of thoughts but it’s easy in the sense that the writer knows how to express herself well.
I recommend. Do read it :).
naimfrewat's review against another edition
1.0
One star because this book is weakly constructed, unedited and a repetition of clichés which have stopped being provocative decades ago.
The writer might be angry but she is above all extremely hurt from her relationships.
The book then comes as a cocktail of ideas, poems, recommendations, quotes, testimonies and unreferenced facts against patriarchy and some men. Some men, because Joumana still wants to be love and get married. Having spent 140 pages destroying all the structures of marriage, she still advocates for it as the solution (one of them at least) to the problems of unhappy, oppressed women.
Despite the idea she wants to sell us that she is liberal, liberated, an arab women who dares speak about sex and the good use of the penis, her loving words, her words that capture her honest emotions remain those addressed towards monogamous marriage.
It's this type of contradiction which is at her self's core and which extends across the book's arguments and analysis (though both are an exaggeration) that makes it a difficult read.
The writer might be angry but she is above all extremely hurt from her relationships.
The book then comes as a cocktail of ideas, poems, recommendations, quotes, testimonies and unreferenced facts against patriarchy and some men. Some men, because Joumana still wants to be love and get married. Having spent 140 pages destroying all the structures of marriage, she still advocates for it as the solution (one of them at least) to the problems of unhappy, oppressed women.
Despite the idea she wants to sell us that she is liberal, liberated, an arab women who dares speak about sex and the good use of the penis, her loving words, her words that capture her honest emotions remain those addressed towards monogamous marriage.
It's this type of contradiction which is at her self's core and which extends across the book's arguments and analysis (though both are an exaggeration) that makes it a difficult read.
lady_ness's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5