Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

Was Benazir Bhutto the First? 5
upon seeing Benazir Bhutto appear on the horizon. So there is an
urgent need for us to decode our grandmothers' secrets. Who were
these mysterious queens? How did they succeed in achieving power
without frightening the men? What strategies did they use to tame
them? How did they manipulate them? Did they use seduction,
beauty, intelligence, or wealth? I know many women from Arab
countries who are politically ambitious, extremely pretty, and
endowed with myriad charms, but who do not know how to succeed
on the political scene. It seems that, as things go, seduction does
not work or rather it is stalled at a very low level. Personally I
know not a single woman who, thanks to seduction, has crossed the
threshold that makes an insecure courtesan into a political partner.
What then is the secret of the queens of former days? How did
they find a place in a political arena in which every woman who
makes a move is subject to punishment human and divine? What
were their names and their titles? Did they dare call themselves
caliph or imam, or were they satisfied with more obscure and less
prestigious titles?
In order to avoid any misunderstanding or confusion, let me say
that in this book every time I speak of Islam without any other
qualification, I am referring to political Islam, to Islam as the
practice of power, to the acts of people animated by passions and
motivated by interest, which is different from Islam Risala, the
divine message, the ideal recorded in the Koran, the holy book.
When I speak of the latter, I will identify it as Islam Risala or
spiritual Islam.