While Islam venerates the Virgin (indeed, the Koran is very high in its praise), it is this author's opinion that the rest of the Koran's attitudes toward women is so negative that it very much outweighs this. Ahmed needs to examine to what extent Mohammed "missed the boat" (so to speak) with regard to his treatment of women and whether or not this reflects a difference between the Mecca and Medina strains of the Islamic Sharia. The Sharia tends to follow the later Medina sayings and these are much more radically conservative ("Living Islam"). It is this creeping conservatism that is not really explained by Ahmed, as we can see in Islamic fundamentalist circles today. While things were not as radical in 1992 when she wrote the book, it is disappointing that she does not explore that more. It is obvious to this author that the disconnect on many issues caused by the differences between the Mecca and the Medina is also playing itself out in this area as well.

To recap, the introduction lays...

In other words, her history is the first to take into account women in Muslim history. In chapter 1, the treatment of women in Islam grows out of what was already there. In other words, it was largely already there and Islam just appropriated it. Ahmed then builds upon this in Chapter 2 but does not build upon the Christian influences upon Islam to explain the schizoid nature of Mohammed's veneration of the Virgin Mary in particular and his misogyny towards women in general. This is a major problem with the book and only a revision will answer it.
Works Cited

Ahmed, L. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Finazzo, G. "The Virgin Mary in the Koran." EWTN.com. EWTN, n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2011. .

"Three Themes of Inquiry." Living Islam. Independent Broadcasting Associates, 2002.

Web. 11 Feb 2011. .