Doyle, Tom, and JoAnn Doyle, with Greg Webster. Women Who Risk: Secret Agents for Jesus in the Muslim World. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group/Thomas Nelson, 2021. 240 pp. Paperback, $19.99.
Women Who Risk offers a series of gripping stories of eight former Muslim women from various countries in the Middle East, who came to Christ. These testimonies are impactful as they describe experiences of being women in the Muslim world and how following Jesus leads to persecution. The authors paint a bleak picture of what life is like for Muslim women. They write about sex trafficking, forced marriages and child brides, molestation, rape, incest, and female genital mutilation as just a few of the horrific abuses women endure within Muslim communities. They claim that “the most overlooked, marginalized, and abused person within the religion of Islam lives behind the veil” (197). The authors emphasize that Jesus is “rescuing women in the Muslim world from their unfair and demeaning treatment,” and that this rescue enables these women to become “secret agents for the Lord” (198).
The stories in the book are inspiring, but the narrative tends to present a monolithic view of a woman’s experience within Islam. The book shares harrowing coming-to-Christian faith testimonies from women in these specific circumstances and encourages prayer. If that were the book’s intention, then it would have accomplished its purpose. However, the Doyles present these testimonies as the normative feminine experience within Islam. Throughout the book, the Doyles offer little to no data outside of these few stories to support their claims. I fear that in articulating these stories in such dramatic fashion, the Doyles risk perpetuating generalizations and negative stereotypes that fail to capture the complexity not only of Islam but also of how cultural and geo-political strife play into these narratives, thereby misrepresenting Islam. Islam, like Christianity, is diverse and encompasses a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices. For the remainder of this review, I will share several examples of how this book can be misread for lack of nuance.
One example to illustrate this point is that every time the book mentions head coverings, the authors frame it negatively. The book never delves into the reasons why women wear head coverings, what they symbolize, or their historical significance. Each time the word "hijab" is used, it is portrayed as a symbol of marginalization or control. But, this is not always the case. For instance, after the Arab Spring in Tunisia, the hijab became legal again and, in wearing it, came to represent women's freedom of choice. The authors interpret veiling as the ultimate sign of women's lack of freedom. This, however, is reductive and does not take into consideration the point of view of the women who wear them or account for the anthropological, historical, or cultural aspects head coverings represent.
Another example is in the chapter “Liars of Lebanon.” The Doyles begin with Layla, whose testimony forms the focus of the chapter, witnessing girls being sent from other Muslim countries, who were in support of ISIS fighters, to meet the sexual desires of extremist fighters. The problem is that there is no source material supporting this claim. With no conversation about the geo-political climate or other complexities involved, the reader is led to assume that the testimony is an accurate account of the political and religious situation. In reality, it is representative of just one perspective, and one for which no evidence was given to validate the veracity of the claims. In 2017 Tunisian nationals protested the return of Tunisians who left to fight alongside ISIS because they did not want ISIS ideology infiltrating the country. The testimony given in this chapter is from Layla who struggles with the “abysmal treatment of women in Islam” (105). There are surahs quoted illustrating men’s dominion over women as Layla struggles to come to terms with how even the prophet’s wife was green from bruising (105). It is hard to read how this young woman suffers physical and mental abuse at the hands of her husband and endures a lack of support from her community, but the reader has to be very careful before equating this to Islam as a whole and not to her specific circumstance. The authors present no material that gives any indication of how prevalent abuse is in Islam, nor if this abuse is the result of religious views or the product of culture or other factors. Without any source of proof, one cannot say that there is any correlation between the experience of this particular woman and how women more generally are viewed and or treated within Islam. Christians must be careful when they provide one surah in trying to define how an entire religion views women. One could just as easily “cherry pick” verses within our scripture that would paint women as lesser (Ephesians 5:23 and 1 Timothy 2:13-15 are just two examples). Without putting these verses within the context and metanarrative of scripture one could extrapolate a very different narrative of how the Bible sees women.
Lastly, Chapter 6 “Trapped in Gaza,” offers the testimony of Shireen, portraying the Palestinians as Hamas-supporting religious fundamentalists. Unfortunately, most of the source material utilized in this chapter came from The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post. It does not take into perspective a Palestinian perspective on the geo-political issues, and cultural and historical complexities or speak of the plight of Christian Palestinians. Once again, the perspectives of people in this region are not considered.
As a Christian female living in a Muslim context, I see the stereotypes and misunderstandings my misinformed friends have about me and what it means to be a Christian. Christianity is conflated with the West, or the portrayal one sees through Hollywood. The stories shared in Women Who Risk are inspiring and terrifying as they shed light on very real situations. Yet, the book as a whole, represents Islam and the female experience in Islam with the same type of bias and lack of nuance as I confront.
Jane Brown (pseudonym)
Missions Field Coordinator
North Africa
