This is a BBC News article about "Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones. Judging from the article, I definitely am not going to be reading this book. However, it's good to be "in the know" about the storyline - here's the article:
A romantic telling of the life of one of the wives of Islam's prophet has caused controversy among some Muslims - and its publication has been indefinitely postponed in the UK amid fears of a violent reaction. But is The Jewel of Medina actually any good? Blogger Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is one of the few people in Britain to have read it.
The Jewel of Medina is a chest-heaving, brassiere-busting book of outrageously tacky historical romantic fiction.
Some parts of the media are suggesting that this book is at the forefront of defending free speech. The author wants it to reach out to solve our global problems of intercultural dialogue. Between them they had me rolling around on the floor laughing.
The book claims to tell the story of Aisha, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, through her own eyes, from the age of six, through adolescence and into adulthood. But although she lives through one of the most dramatic periods of history, the narrative conveys little of the enormity of the changes of the era, and of which Aisha was a huge part.
Sherry Jones, the author, says she wanted her book to be "at once a love story, a history lesson and a coming-of-age tale".
In order to do so, she fabricates a storyline about a lover, Safwan, whom Aisha runs away with - but then decides to leave and return to Muhammad.
But this invented plot dominates, leaving barely any room for the real history and importance of her story.
Whether you believe her to be fact, fiction or fantasy, and Muslims believe her to be very real, Aisha is of great significance in global history. The one fifth of the world population who are Muslim regards her as the wife of the Prophet Muhammad and a "mother of the believers".
click here to read the full article
and here's another linked post from our sisters of Muslimah Media Watch: http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2008/10/16/theres-something-about-aishah/#comments
1 comments:
hey ness - i don't think that you should dismiss the book so quickly. generally, you leave lots of analysis in your blog posts, and i think that this book deserves some too, at least its storyline.
i mean, how strange is it that some random white woman came up with the idea "i'll write a book on aisha!"? is she doing it to sell books, or is she really motivated by some kind of global intercultural goodwill? maybe it's a combination of the two.
it's worth an attempt to try to deconstruct why exactly a trashy romance novel - that no one would give two thoughts to otherwise and would just gather dust on a wal-mart shelf - is garnering all of this insane international attention just because it's "about muslims." like the article mentions, there are some orientalist and islamophobic aspects to it too - among other things.
look forward to hearing more of what you have to say, at least in a big fat email to your sister.
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