Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam

Asra Nomani

Harper Collins, Feb 28, 2006 - Religion - 352 pages

As President Bush is preparing to invade Iraq, Wall Street Journal correspondent Asra Nomani embarks on a dangerous journey from Middle America to the Middle East to join more than two million fellow Muslims on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims once in their lifetime. Mecca is Islam's most sacred city and strictly off limits to non-Muslims. On a journey perilous enough for any American reporter, Nomani is determined to take along her infant son, Shibli -- living proof that she, an unmarried Muslim woman, is guilty of zina, or "illegal sex." If she is found out, the puritanical Islamic law of the Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia may mete out terrifying punishment. But Nomani discovers she is not alone. She is following in the four-thousand-year-old footsteps of another single mother, Hajar (known in the West as Hagar), the original pilgrim to Mecca and mother of the Islamic nation.

Each day of her hajj evokes for Nomani the history of a different Muslim matriarch: Eve, from whom she learns about sin and redemption; Hajar, the single mother abandoned in the desert who teaches her about courage; Khadijah, the first benefactor of Islam and trailblazer for a Muslim woman's right to self-determination; and Aisha, the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam's first female theologian. Inspired by these heroic Muslim women, Nomani returns to America to confront the sexism and intolerance in her local mosque and to fight for the rights of modern Muslim women who are tired of standing alone against the repressive rules and regulations imposed by reactionary fundamentalists.

Nomani shows how many of the freedoms enjoyed centuries ago have been erased by the conservative brand of Islam practiced today, giving the West a false image of Muslim women as veiled and isolated from the world. Standing Alone in Mecca is a personal narrative, relating the modern-day lives of the author and other Muslim women to the lives of those who came before, bringing the changing face of women in Islam into focus through the unique lens of the hajj. Interweaving reportage, political analysis, cultural history, and spiritual travelogue, this is a modern woman's jihad, offering for Westerners a never-before-seen look inside the heart of Islam and the emerging role of Muslim women.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - nvenkataraman1 - LibraryThing

There are three major parts to the book: Asra's spiritual and personal motivations leading up to the Haj, the Haj experience and the post Haj fight for the application of Islamic tenets in modern ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - danoomistmatiste - LibraryThing

A very interesting, readable and unputdownable book. Everyone must put it on their must read list. There are several reasons why I like it, here are a few of them, - This writer was a reported for WSJ ...

Contents

• The Dalai Lama and the Seeds of a Pilgrimage: 3
• Islamic Red Tape: 12
• Betrayal and a Turning Point: 19
• Fear and Doubts: 26
• PART: 33
• On the Road of Bin Laden: 41
• House of Saud House of Donuts: 49
• Climax and Anticlimax: 52
• The Divine in the Desert: 60
• A Prayer Side by Side: 70
• The Prophet and His Female Anchors: 82
• The Contradiction of Public and Private: 91
• The City of Illumination: 97
• My Nephew and the Promise of the New Muslim Man: 106
• PART THREE: 113
• The Devils in the Details: 119
• Judgment Day Sin and Forgiveness: 126
• The True Face of Satan: 132
• A Very Good God: 138
• A Different Path: 149
• Travel Warnings and War Clouds: 158
• PART FIVE: 165
• My Voice Claimed: 174
• Acceptance: 180
• A Princess in Islam: 186
• PART: 193
• History Reclaimed: 199
• Our Ascension: 207
• Islamic Rights in Western Law: 213
• A Restraining Order in the House of God: 220
• Disappointment After Disappointment: 224
• Messages of Worthlessness: 233
• PART SEVEN: 241
• Inquisition: 250
• Back to Mecca: 258
• New Triumphs: 266
• The Professor: 272
• Epilogue: 281
• An Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in Mosques: 293
• Acknowledgments: 303

About the author

Asra Q. Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, has also written for the Washington Post, New York Times, and Time magazine on Islam, and has covered the war in Afghanistan for Salon.com. She has spoken about women’s rights in Islam on CNN, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. A Muslim born in India, Nomani was raised in the foothills of West Virginia, and currently lives in Morgantown with her son, Shibli.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam
• Author: Asra Nomani
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2006
• ISBN: 0060832975, 9780060832971
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Religious; Religion / Islam / Rituals & Practice; Social Science / Women's Studies