"The more religious an area is, the more risqué the underwear becomes. I think that Muslim women have less freedom on the outside so to compensate they have more freedom on the inside." — an anonymous quote from The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie

This unexpected, delightful book lands at a cultural moment where the whole wide world is obsessed with Islam. Fundamentalists inside the religion often argue that guarding her chastity is a woman's main religious duty; fundamentalists outside the religion slap labels of misogyny on the faith without looking in their own backyards; and female Muslims all over the world fight to get their voices heard in a heated conversation that's ostensibly about them.

Personally, I like to hear women speak for themselves, which is why Mala Halasa and Ranu Salam's thoughful book is a welcome addition to the melee. Both Middle Eastern by birth, the London-based journalists use the bustling lingerie culture of Syria's souks as an entry point to discuss the tensions Syrian Muslim women negotiate every day. They live in a country where they can vote, drive and work outside the home; yet their husbands often threaten them with taking another wife if they don't submit to his whims, both domestic and sexual.

On the outside, their Christian neighbours have more freedom to display their needs and desires, but as the interviews in this book show, many Muslim women have active, spicy sex lives in which they are very willing participants. As with women everywhere, Syrian Muslim wives use their sexuality to negotiate power.

Helping to make the book a page turner are the endless glossy photos of the lingerie itself. Syrian lingerie isn't demure or suggestive: it's completely out there. We're talking adornments like lifesized chirping birds dressed in real feathers, hearts and spangles and tassels galore, full-sized mesh body stockings—even a feathery g-string decorated with an inexplicable cell phone. Let's face it—to Western eyes, some of this stuff is mad tacky, and even Syrians know it's not exactly "romantic" or even "sexy." There are many reasons given for the appeal of the over-the-top underwear, everything from the modestly veiled woman's desire for outrageous clothing to the need for old married couples to simply laugh in the bedroom.

Syrian-made boudoir clothing and gifts (like chocolate hearts hiding red lace thongs) are apparently hot sellers all over the Middle East, including in big, bossy Saudi Arabia. Women are buying this stuff for themselves and their female relatives and friends, and men are buying it for their wives, their almost-wives, and yes, their mistresses. It may not look like what happens inside your bedroom, but sex is everywhere, making the planet turn. Everyone's got an opinion on the place of women in Islam—The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie adds a welcome twist to the debate.