"Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It" is a collection of sketches by various missionaries to Moslem countries in the 18th century. It highlights the plight of women in Moslem nations at the time, and is edited by Samuel Marinus Zwemer. Zwemer, nicknamed The Apostle to Islam, was an American missionary, traveler, and scholar. After being ordained to the Reformed Church ministry by the Pella, Iowa Classis in 1890, he served as a missionary at Busrah, Bahrein, and at other locations in Arabia from 1891 to 1905. He was also a member of the Arabian Mission.
This book with its sad, reiterated story of wrong and oppression is an indictment and an appeal. It is an indictment of the system which produces results so pitiful. It is an appeal to Christian womanhood to right these wrongs and enlighten this darkness by sacrifice and service.
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"Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It" is a collection of sketches by various missionaries to Moslem countries in the 18th century. It highlights the plight of women in Moslem nations at the time, and is edited by Samuel Marinus Zwemer. Zwemer, nicknamed The Apostle to Islam, was an American missionary, traveler, and scholar. After being ordained to the Reformed Church ministry by the Pella, Iowa Classis in 1890, he served as a missionary at Busrah, Bahrein, and at other locations in Arabia from 1891 to 1905. He was also a member of the Arabian Mission.
"This is indeed a 'cry of need' and one of the saddest cries that ever rang out over the world. The condition of woman under Mohammedanism is its deepest condemnation. Such chapter titles as 'Behind the Opening Door in Tunis,' 'Light in Darkest Morocco,' 'Mohammedan Women in Central Soudan,' and 'Behind the Lattice in Turkey,' are suggestive of the conditions and scenes described in this book. It is a vivid portrayal and should move us to greater earnestness and speed in sending the gospel to lands of Mohammedan darkness." -Presbyterian Banner "One verse in the Koran, in which women are forbidden to appear unveiled before any man except certain relatives, is responsible for a condition which 'lies at the root of all the most important features that differentiate progress from stagnation.' In this book...is collected a mass of testimony and undoubted facts that merely lift the edge of the sad truth as to the lives of women in Mohammedan communities....One point made in this book is not perfectly recognized even by those of us who read about the Moslems. The universality and ease of divorce, the absolute freedom of the husband, and the utter helplessness of the wife, are revelations to many. A mere sentence, repeated three times, is irrevocable, and the wife is cast out to a life of sorrow, shame, and poverty very often." -The Outlook "The sorrow and pathos of the life for Moslem womanhood are so vividly presented that it would be scarcely a true statement to say that one enjoys reading the book. One is made rather to share with the writers in their pity for 'our Moslem sisters....' It is safe to say that the picture is a true one. There is no exaggeration. Whether in Egypt or elsewhere, we find the Moslem woman's life blighted by ignorance, degraded by superstition, tortured by jealousy, and wronged by the awful divorce system which characterize Mohammedan life. The book is one greatly needed to arouse the Christian world of today, for I know of no other book which even attempts to present the picture which is so successfully presented in 'Our Moslem Sisters.'" -Charles R. Watson, Intercollegian "The great struggle of the future, they say, will be between Christ and Muhammad....For those Christians who think that Muhammadanism may serve as, at least, a half-way house towards Christianity, we recommend the reading of 'Our Moslem Sisters.' There is nothing revolting. There is nothing sensational in the book. It is a description of the daily life of Muhammadan women....It was an infidel who declared that Christianity must be judged by its treatment of women. Let the challenge be accepted; let Christianity and Muhammadanism both be judged by their treatment of women." -The Expository Times CONTENTS I. Hagar and Her Sisters II. Egypt, the Land of Bondage III. From Under the Yoke of Social Evils IV. The Women of Egypt Once More V. Behind the Opening Door in Tunis VI. " Not Dead, Only Dry " VII. Light in Darkest Morocco VIII. Mohammedan Women in the Central Soudan IX. A Story from East Africa X. Our Arabian Sisters XI. Women's Life in the Yemen XII. Pen-and-Ink Sketches in Palestine XIII. Once More in Palestine XIV. Mohammedan Women in Syria XV. Behind the Lattice in Turkey XVI. A Voice from Bulgaria XVII. Darkness and Daybreak in Persia XVIII. Darkness and Daybreak in Persia (Part II) XIX. The Condition of Mohammedan Women in Baluchistan XX. In Southern India XXI. The Mohammedan Women of Turkestan XXII. In Far-off Cathay XXIII. Our Moslem Sisters in Java XXIV. The Mohammedan Women of Malaysia XXV. " What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do? "
"We must concentrate attention upon the mothers, for what the mothers are, the children will be." These words, spoken recently by a British statesman, are but the thoughts of many who have tried to save the children. And in looking at the millions of Moslems in the world to-day, and wondering why they are still as they were a thousand years ago, rather drifting backward than advancing, we turn to their women and find the cause. Mohammedan law, custom, and the example of their founder place woman on a level with beasts of burden and no nation rises above the level of its women. The Lord Jesus is the only prophet come to this world who has raised women to what God meant them to be. It is only He who can save our Moslem sisters. When Hagar returns to Christ Ishmael shall live. The story of Hagar, the mother of the Arabs, tells us of a young girl sacrificed for the scheme and [Pg 16]then the jealousy of an older woman who should have loved and pitied her. And it seems to some of us that it needs the widespread love and pity of the women of our day in Christian lands to seek and save the suffering sinful needy women of Islam. You cannot know how great the need unless you are told; you will never go and find them until you hear their cry. And they will never cry for themselves, for they are down under the yoke of centuries of oppression, and their hearts have no hope or knowledge of anything better.
Islam. Has a religion of peace been hijacked by modern radicals? Our Muslim Sisters documents Muslim beliefs and practices relating to women from across a broad spectrum of the Islamic world. First published in 1906, these first-hand case studies and testimonies demonstrate how the oppression of women, in a myriad of forms, is a fundamental tenet of the Muslim system. From the Introduction, "This book - with its sad, reiterated story of wrong and oppression - is an indictment and an appeal. It is an indictment of the system, which produces such pathetic results. It is an appeal to Christians to right these wrongs and enlighten this darkness by sacrifice and service. At the recent Islamic Educational Conference in Bombay [1906], the president of the gathering, the Agha Khan, himself a leading Muslim, spoke very vigorously of the chief barriers to progress in the Muslim world. The first and greatest of these barriers in his opinion was "the seclusion of women, which results in keeping half the community in ignorance and degradation and this hinders the progress of the whole." Surely, the ignorance and degradation of one-half of a community, which has a world population of over 233 million, is a question that concerns all who love humanity." Has Islam been hijacked? In fact, nothing has changed.
This book with its sad, reiterated story of wrong and oppression is an indictment and an appeal. It is an indictment of the system which produces results so pitiful. It is an appeal to Christian womanhood to right these wrongs and enlighten this darkness by sacrifice and service. At the recent Mohammedan Educational Conference in Bombay the president of the gathering, the Agha Khan, himself a leading Moslem, spoke very trenchantly of the chief barriers to progress in the Moslem world. The first and greatest of these barriers in his opinion was "the seclusion of women which results in keeping half the community in ignorance and degradation and this hinders the progress of the whole." Surely the ignorance and degradation of one-half of a community which has a world population of 233 millions is a question that concerns all who love humanity. The origin of the veil of Islam was, as is well known, one of the marriage affairs of Mohammed himself, with its appropriate revelation from Allah. In the twenty-fourth Surah of the Koran women are forbidden to appear unveiled before any member of the other sex, with the exception of near relatives. And so by one verse the bright, refining, elevating influence of women was forever withdrawn from Moslem society. The evils of the zenana, the seraglio, the harem, or by whatever name it is called, are writ large over all the social life of the Moslem world. Keene says it "lies at the root of all the most important features that differentiate progress from stagnation." In Arabia before the advent of Islam it was customary to bury female infants alive. Mohammed improved on the barbaric method and discovered a way by which all females could be buried alive and yet live on—namely, the veil. How they live on, this book tells! Its chapters are not cunningly devised fables nor stories told for the story's sake. Men and women who have given of their strength and service, their love and their life to ameliorate the lives of Moslem women and carry the torch of Truth into these lands of darkness write simply the truth in a straightforward way. All the chapters were written by missionaries in the various lands represented. And with three exceptions the writers were women. The chapter on Turkestan is by a converted Moslem; and the two chapters on the Yemen and the Central Soudan are by medical missionaries. The book has as many authors as there are chapters. For obvious reasons their names are not published, but their testimony is unimpeachable and unanimous. We read what their eyes have seen, what their hands have handled, and what has stirred their hearts. It has stirred the hearts of educated Moslems too, in Egypt as well as in India. A new book on this very subject was recently published at Cairo by Kasim Ameen, a learned Moslem jurist. Although he denies that Islam is the cause, yet speaking of the present relation of the Mohammedan woman to man the author says: "Man is the absolute master and woman the slave. She is the object of his sensual pleasures, a toy, as it were, with which he plays, whenever and however he pleases. Knowledge is his, ignorance is hers. The firmament and the light are his, darkness and the dungeon are hers. His is to command, hers is to blindly obey. His is everything that is, and she is an insignificant part of that everything.
