Virgins of Paradise

Virgins of Paradise
Author: Barbara Wood
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 604
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1596528893

From New York Times bestselling author Barbara Wood: A magnificent coming-of-age saga about two sisters from an aristocratic Egyptian family who rebel against tradition. Inside a beautiful mansion on Virgins of Paradise Street in post-World War II Cairo, Jasmine and Camelia Rasheed grow to womanhood under the watchful eyes of their grandmother and the other women of the prominent Rasheed family. Despite the glamour and elegance of the city, women still wear the veil and live in harems. But as Egypt begins to change, so do Jasmine and Camelia. Rebelling against a society in which the suppression of women is assumed, Jasmine and Camelia embark on turbulent personal and professional voyages of discovery. Cast out of the family, Jasmine travels to America to become a doctor while Camelia sets out to become one of the foremost beledi dancers in the Middle East. Sensuous, spicy, and romantic, Virgins of Paradise is a spellbinding novel set in an exotic and erotic culture. Brilliantly portraying two sisters' search for identity amidst historic change, Wood also conveys a portrait of an ancient nation merging into the modern era while mired in superstition, magic, and mythology.

No Truth Without Beauty

No Truth Without Beauty
Author: Leena El-Ali
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2021-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3030835820

In this comprehensive open access book, written for readers from any or no religious background, Leena El-Ali does something remarkable. Never before has anyone taken on every last claim relating to Islam and women and countered it not just with Qur’anic evidence to the contrary, but with easy-to-use tools available to all. How can a woman’s testimony be worth half of a man’s? How can men divorce their wives unilaterally by uttering three words? And what’s with the obsession with virgins in Paradise? Find the chapter on any of the seventeen topics in this book, and you will quickly learn a) where the myth came from and b) how to bust it. The methodology pursued is simple. First, the Qur’an is given priority over all other literary or “scriptural” sources. Second, the meaning of its verses in the original Arabic is highlighted, in contrast to English translations and/or widespread misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

72 Virgins

72 Virgins
Author: Avi Perry
Publisher: Gradient Pub
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2009
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780615280516

A suspense-thriller about a nightmare scenario-a countdown to a Mumbai-style attack on U.S. soil, where the FBI, the Israeli Mossad, the US-based Iranian clandestine terror network, and the Islamic Jihad fraternity, all engaged in a timeless conflict, which plays out to a crescendo that comes to a head before the dramatic conclusion. The story offers an ample dose of realism, a cast of intense characters who engage in love, lust, and violence. It portrays the Jihad culture with its rationale and the volcano that breeds an irrational obsession with death. Moreover, it builds on the Jihadists' motivation for targeting so many innocents and exploiting the victims' massacre as a stepping-stone to their dream of eternal paradise next to Allah's throne. The real question is not whether Jihad terrorists' plots will ever cease to emerge-there is no chance of that. The question the book seeks to answer is, will the next one be stopped before it's too late?

Domina

Domina
Author: Barbara Wood
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1596528877

Set in London, New York, and San Francisco from the late nineteenth century through the first decades of the twentieth, Domina is the inspiring saga of one woman's personal and professional triumph against the prejudices of her time. Beautiful and courageous, Samantha Hargrave dares to dream that she will become one of the first female doctors — and surgeons — in America. Born in the slums of London and possessing a special gift for healing, Samantha struggles to enter the all-male medical profession. When her ambition encounters hostile rejection in England, she sails to America, where she meets an eccentric doctor who takes her on as an apprentice. But at the high-profile Astor Ball in New York, Samantha is introduced to the second of the three men who will change her life forever — and love just might interfere with her ambition. Acclaimed novelist Barbara Wood reveals her remarkable talent by capturing Samantha's indomitable spirit, making Domina a literary triumph. Praise for Domina: "Compelling and passionate...A book that inspires." — Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means "It is rare and pleasurable to find a novel that expresses the glories and disgraces of the medical profession from a woman's perspective." — Booklist “An accomplished storyteller.” —John Jakes, New York Times bestselling author “Wood shows herself a wizard at juggling action and romance, maintaining the momentum and sparkle of both.” —Kirkus Reviews “Wood makes her fiction come alive with authentic detailing and highly memorable characters.” —Booklist “Barbara Wood is an entertainer.” —Washington Post Book World “Wood crafts vivid sketches of women who triumph over destiny.” —Publishers Weekly “Wood creates genuine, engaging characters whose stories are fascinating.” —Library Journal

The Beauty of the Houri

The Beauty of the Houri
Author: Nerina Rustomji
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190249366

A captivating look at the history of the pure females of Islamic paradise known as the houri The fascination with the houri, the pure female of Islamic paradise, began long before September 11, 2001. Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals demonstrates how the ambiguous reward of the houri, mentioned in the Qur?an and developed in Islamic theological writings, has gained a distinctive place in the cultural eye from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. The houri had multiple functions in Islamic texts that ranged from caretaker, to pure companion, to personal entertainment. French, English, and American writers used the houri to critique Islam and Muslim societies, while also adopting the houri as a model of feminine beauty. Unlike earlier texts that presented different forms of the houri or universalized the houri for all women, writings about the houri after September 11th offer contradictory messages about Islam. In the twenty-first century, the image of the houri has come to symbolize a reward for violence and the possibility of gender parity. As a cosmic figure that inspires enduring questions about the promise of paradise and the idealized feminine form, the houri has a singular past and broad potential for future interpretation. The Beauty of the Houri narrates an intellectual history of the houri and offers a contemporary account of how theological ambiguity has led to different interpretations of this powerfully enduring Islamic concept.

This Golden Land

This Golden Land
Author: Barbara Wood
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1596528915

A sweeping historical saga of Australia and a love story of one determined young woman who must choose between the two devoted men she loves. Eighteen-year-old Hannah Conroy has always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps as a healer. But in 19th-century England, the medical profession is closed to women. She sees midwifery as a back door into that world, but her fledgling career is crushed by personal tragedy. Seeking to escape a possible murder conviction in England, Hannah's world is turned upside down as she boards a boat bound for Melbourne. Young and naïve, with some laboratory notes and a handful of medical instruments, she hopes Australia is a place of a new beginning and a fresh start, a place where she can begin a midwife practice. Arriving during a period of enormous change in Australia, Hannah faces a myriad of challenges. Not only must she fight for acceptance as a medical professional, but she also falls in love with and must decide between two men: an American photographer seeking a new life in Australia, and a rowdy outlaw fleeing arrest. This Golden Land presents a love story that neither time nor distance can erase.

Against Jovinianus

Against Jovinianus
Author: St. Jerome
Publisher: Dalcassian Publishing Company
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-12-07
Genre:
ISBN: 1987022882

Jovinianus, about whom little more is known than what is to be found in Jerome's treatise, published a Latin treatise outlining several opinions: That a virgin is no better, as such, than a wife in the sight of God. Abstinence from food is no better than a thankful partaking of food. A person baptized with the Spirit as well as with water cannot sin. All sins are equal. There is but one grade of punishment and one of reward in the future state. In addition to this, he held the birth of Jesus Christ to have been by a "true parturition," and was thus refuting the orthodoxy of the time, according to which, the infant Jesus passed through the walls of the womb as his Resurrection body afterwards did, out of the tomb or through closed doors.

Vivaldi's Virgins LP

Vivaldi's Virgins LP
Author: Barbara Quick
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2007-07-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0061285269

In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi's Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi—known as the Red Priest of Venice—is maestro and composer. Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della Pietà as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from. Her quest takes her beyond the cloister walls into the complex tapestry of Venetian society; from the impoverished alleyways of the Jewish Ghetto to a masked ball in the company of a king; from the passionate communal life of adolescent girls competing for their maestro's favor to the larger-than-life world of music and spectacle that kept the citizens of a dying republic in thrall. In this world, where for fully half the year the entire city is masked and cloaked in the anonymity of Carnival, nothing is as it appears to be. A virtuoso performance in the tradition of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vivaldi's Virgins is a fascinating glimpse inside the source of Vivaldi's musical legacy, interwoven with the gripping story of a remarkable young woman's coming-of-age in a deliciously evocative time and place.

Women and Islam

Women and Islam
Author: Zayn R. Kassam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2010-10-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

This balanced exploration provides the basis for an energetic engagement with what it means to be a Muslim woman in a globalized world. The expert essays in Women and Islam are designed to stimulate discussion and help readers achieve a more sober understanding of the lives of Muslim women around the world. They explore the issues Muslim women face as they fight for gender justice and meet the challenges of living in a globalized, post-9/11 world—whether in Iran or France, Ethiopia, or the United States. Each chapter examines a different part of the globe, exploring issues arising from cultural and religious codes, as well as from internal and global politics, economics, education, and the law. Readers will glimpse the many and diverse ways in which Muslim women are actively involved in addressing the conditions embedded in their discrete environments and taking up the opportunities afforded to them, adopting strategies ranging from the political to the legal, from the theatrical to the religious.