A review by areen
Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America by Sheima Benembarek

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad

5.0

there's no way I'd rate this less than 5/5 when these are the stories of strong brave women who went through such tough lives.

that being said as a muslim woman myself, and growing up in an unreligious family, I could still relate to and understand all the women's experience in some way. even if no one pressured me to wear a hijab as a muslim, I still felt and experienced the patriarchy and mysogony rooted in the minds of other muslims around me bc of how we're taught about the ways women should present themselves through our religion. (tho it's prevalent in every religion in general, I suppose) I'm glad I stumbled upon this book.
possibly my favorite quote:

This was one of the things that always really bothered me about Islam. This preoccupation with policing women’s sexuality,” she says. She doesn’t remember Baasim ever going into the same level of detail regarding boys. “Like, why is there so much focus on women?”

She doesn’t understand what kind of God would care about something so basic, so petty. To her, that smells very much like human interpretation."