Heaven in the Qur'an - Letter pt 4

Heaven – a short aside...being an excerpt from a letter to a Muslim convert friend
This is a concept which I have always found immensely difficult. We discussed the punishment awaiting sinners and I’d like to return to it later. However, what intrigues me for the moment is the paradise described in the Qur’an to which I alluded briefly and which seems to be, inter alia, worryingly misogynistic.  For example, Surah 56 verses 12- 39 reveals what awaits the faithful:
"They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason); with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a guerdon for their deeds... We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand..."