This book would have been better off with the title "Why Men Have the Privilege They Do and Why the West Isn't the Best, With Some Notes on Women."

I desperately want to give Women in Shariah a lower rating, but despite my opposition to some of the views expressed in the book, the Islamic laws are well-sourced and well-explained. I take issue, however, with how much time Doi spends justifying men's rights. I understand that there are certain situations where it is impossible to examine the woman's role without exploring the man's role (such as in a discussion about marriage), but there are times--especially in the polygamy chapter--when Doi gets a bit preachy over men's rights. He also spends a significant portion of the book slandering "The West" by making violent, sweeping generalizations about the behavior of Europeans and Americans, exclusively for the purpose of elevating Islamic society above The West. In doing so, though, Doi makes two major blunders: he assumes that western society is not and cannot be Islamic society and he ignores the socioeconomic factors that play into some of the problems he discusses. He also does a wonderful job of covering up the deficiencies in so-called Islamic societies. Had he taken the time to explore them, he would have realized that these deficiencies are not a result of religion, culture, or even geographic location (though all of those things obviously factor in) but a result of human nature.

I also take issue with the structure of the book; the chapters on polygamy and zina are excessively long. The chapters on family planning and education are exceedingly short by comparison. There is, at least, a derth of evidence supporting the author's stance on the latter two chapters, while the former two are supported by opinion and evidence taken from outside the realm of Islam (Doi cites Newsweek more than once). Moreover, one of the final chapters, "Feminism," is unnecessary. While the feminism chapter provides decent insight into the feminist movement in a handful of Muslim (or formerly Muslim) countries, it is mostly unrelated to the topic at hand--Islamic law. I'm not saying discussions about feminism are unnecessary, quite the contrary, feminism and womyn's (I use the 'y' to include a wider range of gender expression) rights need to be a worldwide topic of dialogue, but Doi included it simply to add fuel to his "The West is the Worst" argument. At least the information can be used as a jumping point into feminism.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone, Muslim or otherwise. It's a solid primer, even if I bristle at some of the author's conclusions and word choices. If it weren't for those offenses, I would have given the book a much higher rating.