MTU:ME/Thematic Book Collection

Ahmed A Border Passage : From Cairo to America-A Woman's Journey by Leila Ahmed; 320 pages Reissue edition (June 5, 2000) Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140291830.	Border Passage. The New York Times Book Review, Barbara Crossette ...a richly insightful account of the inner conflicts of a generation coming of age during and after the collapse of European imperialism... From Booklist Questions of identity engage Ahmed in this gracefully written and deeply felt reflection on her Egyptian Muslim childhood, Cambridge education, and life in U.S. academia. Born into Cairo's upper class during the 1940s, Ahmed, professor of women's studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was taught to value all things European, an orientation discredited by the revolution, Nasser's assent to power, and the emergence of Arab nationalism. Ahmed's confusion about her place in the new Egypt was further exacerbated by her engineer father's bold opposition to Nasser's pet project, the Aswan High Dam. She was also profoundly affected by her observations of the great divide between the sexes, and she uses her carefully parsed memories of her extended family and friends to introduce striking insights into the radically different ways Islamic men and women interpret their faith. Poetic and questing, Ahmed brings the same perspicacity to her musings on the experience of being seen as a woman of color in England and the U.S., ultimately illuminating the malignancy of so many of our assumptions regarding gender, race, culture, and who has the power to declare what is right. Donna Seaman. From Kirkus Reviews A lucid and luminous evocation of growing up in a whirlpool of cultures and the rewarding struggle of sorting it all out. Ahmed (Women's Studies/Univ. of Mass., Amherst) was born into a professional Egyptian family that thrived in the quasi- republic of King Farouk and the British protectorate. When Nasser came to power in the early 1950s, her father's influence sank as a result of his protests (on what turned out to be ecologically sound grounds) against the Aswan Dam. The Suez crisis made Nasser a hero in the Arab world and put pressure on Egyptians until then a motley and proud mixture of Coptic Christian ("the only truly indigenous inhabitants of Egypt''), Muslim, and Jew; of Mediterranean, African, Nilotic to identify as "Arab." Growing up in a home where English was honored (although Arabic and French were also spoken), Ahmed had come, with her friends, to regard things Arab as inferior. Faced also with the dichotomy of privilege vs. poverty, always visible in Cairo, Ahmed became more and more confused about who she was and where her loyalties lay. This book is about working out that identity as a woman in a traditional society, as a ``black'' at Cambridge University, as a Muslim in the anti-Islamic US environment of the 1980s. Even her feminist colleagues' prejudice against Islam was extreme, based primarily on what they saw as "fundamentalist" strictures against women. Ahmed examines these events, questioning various cultural frameworks she has encountered: the men- only mosques where the classical Koran is taught, the white male template of Cambridge, and the written culture so different from the fluid oral traditions she examined on a sojourn in Abu Dhabi. She delicately untangles and eloquently describes the threads of political and personal circumstance that led first to confusion and then to understanding. A beautiful tale that is a celebration not only of women and the authors native country (with all its flaws), but also of intellectual flowering. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

MacK Arabian Nights' Entertainments (World's Classics) Robert L. MacK Pub. 1996; $12.76	Arabian Nights. The Sultan Schahriar's misguided resolution to shelter himself from the possible infidelities of his wives leads to an outbreak of barbarity in his realm and to a reign of terror in his court, stopped only by the resourceful Scheherazade. The tales with which she nightly postpones the Sultan's murderous intent have entered our language and our lives like no other collection of stories before or since. Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin: all make their appearance in Arabian Nights' Entertainments. This edition is the only one to offer the complete text of the earliest English translation, and also provides full notes and plot summaries, especially important in a such a sprawling work of great complexity. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Return to the Top!

Thesiger Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger; Reprint edition (March 1985) Viking Pr; ISBN: 0140095144	Arabian Sands. Reviewer: mandvav from Orleans, MA, USA Besides being a wonderful book, as other reviewers have remarked, 'Arabian Sands' is important reading for anyone who wants to understand the culture and history of the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The Bedu are, and always have been, a small fraction of the Arabs; historically, they have been disliked, mistrusted and often hated by the settled Arabs of the Middle East. In North Africa, the Berbers (a completely different people, with non-Arabic languages) have sometimes been confused with the Bedu. The Bedu way of life is now nearly extinct; Thesiger's book, which describes his travels with the Yemeni Bedu of Southern Arabia, is the only careful account of Bedu culture and Bedu peoples I have ever come across. I know of no similarly illuminating study of the Qaysi Bedu of Northern Arabia, not even the works of T. E. Lawrence. The historical importance of the Bedu in the Arab world is that on several occasions from the 8th century to the 20th century, Bedu tribesmen formed the core of armies that swept across the Middle East and/or North Africa. Invading Bedu armies overthrew decadent regimes in North Africa in the 13th century, and effectively destroyed Berber power on the North African coast. Bedu formed the core of the Arab armies that defeated the Turks in the First World War, and were the core of the army which Ibn Saudi created that turned him from being a refugee into being the founder of Saudi Arabia as it is today. How did the small number of people who comprised the various Bedu tribes exercise such military power throughout the Arab World? Read "Arabian Sands" to understand this. Return to the Top!

Denys Arabic Short Stories (Literature of the Middle East) Denys Johnson-Davies (Translator), Roger Allen / 1994; $13.95	Arabic Short Stories. Book Description An alleyway of Tangier as seen through the eyes of a prostitute, the price paid by a sophisticated Cairene philanderer for his infatuation with a young bedouin girl, the callous treatment a young wife receives from the man to whom she has been married. These are some of the themes of the twenty- four stories in this volume, each by a different author and rendered into English by one of the finest translators of Arabic fiction. Among the authors represented are Edward El-Kharrat, Bahaa Taher, Alifa Rifaat, and Ghassan Kanafani. Through the eyes of insiders, these stories show us the intimate texture of life throughout the diverse countries and cultures of the Arabic world. Return to the Top!

Tahir Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery : A Novel (Literature of the Middle East) Baha Tahir, et al / Paperback / 1996 Suggested Price: $11.16	Aunt Saffiya and the Monastery. Book Description This book is about a community that is disintegrating with the departure of women for the social emancipation offered by the big city. With the end of Safiyya [the book's heroine] and of the superstitions that have persecuted her, as for millennium, they have persecuted Egypt, crushed by its myths and by cultural tradition immobilized by time." (Il Sole 24 Ore "Beyond the events, Tahir draws a very lively portrait of a woman of Islamic civilization in the 1960s, where women, holding their chador between their teeth while their hands serve their men, play the part of the protagonists who are silent but very powerful in the life of the community. Return to the Top!

Badr A Balcony over the Fakihani Liyana Badr, Christopher Tingley (Translator), P. Clark (Translator) / Paperback / Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated / June 1992; Suggested Price: $9.95	A Balcony Over the Fakihani. From Kirkus Reviews , January 1, 1993 Three poignant novellas about life-in-exile from Palestinian writer Badr, born in Jerusalem and now living in Tunisia. The stories, set mainly in Beirut, are preoccupied with exile but with not forgetting homes in Israel, in Jordan, and then in Beirut, from which Palestinians have been driven as conflicts ravage the region. ``A Land of Rock and Thyme'' is told by Ysra, a young woman whose husband, a resistance fighter from the West Bank, has been killed in an Israeli raid into South Lebanon. A disturbing dream about a visit to the Martyrs' Cemetery leads Ysra to recall her father, who was killed by a shell while she was fetching water in the refugee camp, as well as her first meeting with her husband, and their brief, idyllic visit to his native village. Now pregnant and a widow, she is a woman ``dressed in black'' trying to understand that these are the times of bitterness, but that there ``will be times of beauty and light.'' The second piece, the title story, is set in war-torn Beirut--a place where, after a night's bombardment, a mother notices in horror a white hair on her baby's head. A range of voices, the people who frequent Suad's flower- filled balcony in the Fakihani district, tell about the Tunisian- born fighter Umar, Suad's husband, who survived a near-fatal illness, then died in a bomb blast. Last, ``The Canary and the Sea'' is the memoir of a young man whose family was exiled from the West Bank--``the country that was beyond my reach''--only to become a prisoner of war in Israel, exchanged later for an Israeli, and then, compounding the pain of exile once back in Beirut, expelled to Tunisia. Unapologetically partisan, but the writing is good enough to rise above politics and tell moving tales of a troubled people living in an even more troubled place. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

Laube Behind the Veil : An Australian Nurse in Saudi Arabia by Lydia Laube; 208 pages (October 1998) Wakefield Pr; ISBN: 1862542678	Behind the Veil. Editorial Reviews; From AudioFile BEHIND THE VEIL chronicles the story of an Australian nurse in Saudi Arabia who obviously did not fully appreciate what she was in for living and working in a culture with such extreme constraints on women. Deidre Rubenstein works the ironic and irreverent humor from the start. She never loses the hint of the author's surprise at her own naiveté in setting out on this rather mad adventure or her pride in the stubborn profession-alism that sees her through. This story is presented with the tone and intimacy of a series of letters home (although, in reality, such letters would have been thoroughly censored.) J.E.M. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the audio cassette edition of this title. Book Description "Cardiac resuscitation was often applied to a patient who was fast asleep. The hapless victim woke from a peaceful slumber to find somebody, often an infidel, jumping up and down on his chest." Lydia Laube worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia in a society that does not allow women to drive, vote, or speak to a man alone. Wearing head-to-toe coverings in stifling heat, and battling administrative apathy, Lydia Laube kept her sanity and got her passport back. "Behind the Veil" is the hilarious account of an Australian woman's battle against the odds. It will keep you entertained for hours. Return to the Top!

Munif Cities of Salt : A Novel Abdelrahman Munif, et al / Paperback / Pub. 1989/ $13.60	City of Salt. Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community. A major new Adventure: one of the greatest contemporary novels in the Arabic language, translated for the first time into English. Reveals and humanizes a society that has for too long been misunderstood, and should therefore command the serious attention of American reviewers.

Mernissi Dreams of Trespass : Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi; Paperback (September 1995) Perseus Pr; ISBN: 0201489376	Dreams of Trespass. Amazon.com In 1940, harems still abounded in Fez, Morocco. They weren't the opulent, bejeweled harems of Scherezade, but the domestic sprawl of extended families encamped around a walled courtyard that marked the edges of women's lives. Though born into this tightly sheltered world, Fatimi Mernissi is constantly urged by her rebellious mother to spring beyond it. Worried that Mernissi is too shy and quiet, her mother tells her, "You must learn to scream and protest, just the way you learned to walk and talk." In Dreams of Trespass, an enjoyable weave of memory and fantasy, it is clear that Mernissi's fertile imagination let her slip back and forth through the gates that trapped her restive mother. She spins amiable, often improbable tales of the rigidly proper city harem in Fez and the contrasting freedoms of the country harem where her grandmother Yakima lives. There, one of Yakima's cowives rides like the wind, another swims like a fish, and Yakima relishes twitting the humorless first wife by naming a fat, waddling duck after her. From Booklist Every once in a while, a childhood memoir effortlessly transports us to another world in which we dwell happily for the duration of the book. From its opening--"I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, a ninth-century Moroccan city"--to its closing questions about the nature of power between men and women, this one reads as part fairy tale, part feminist manifesto. Sociologist and scholar Mernissi vividly paints an unforgettable world of women who created a rich life behind closed doors. Through her consciousness as a young girl, we see the weekly beauty rituals, feel the nurturance of living among so many women, and sense the comfort of age-old traditions. But also through her sharp-eyed perspective come descriptions of a changing world, dissatisfaction among the women over their virtual entrapment within the harem compound, and endless questions about the powerlessness she feels even as a girl. Amazingly, she manages to be nonjudgmental while still questioning the very foundation of Islam. A rare book, both magical and political. Mary Ellen Sullivan From Kirkus Reviews , April 15, 1994 Prominent Middle Eastern scholar Mernissi's (Beyond the Veil, not reviewed) childhood memoir should be titled ``The Making of a Muslim Feminist.'' Readers expecting a narrative about a sultan's harem where voluptuous Venuses loll in silk-draped palaces will be disappointed; Mernissi's subject is the domestic harem of her extended family. After outlining the restrictive domestic hierarchy and Muslim decorum that literally imprison women, Mernissi reveals how her relatives find escape and rebellion in daily chores. A battle for women's rights is waged in her grandmother's fight to wash dishes in a river, her cousin's march to the movies, her aunt's expressive embroidery, and her mother's refusal to use modern French beauty products made by men. But rather than weave an intimate tale of growing up in 1940s Morocco, Mernissi has forged the incidents of her childhood into neat feminist lessons, each taught by a relative who is fashioned into an archetype: her aunt advocates escape into dreams; her mother says knowledge is the way out. Despite this and other flaws, Mernissi does offer a rare glimpse of Muslim women's home life--from co-wives' bickering to communal bath joys. Ultimately, her title proves ironic because, while Westerners associate the word harem with sensuality, that is precisely what is absent from these women's lives. As Aunt Habiba says: ``Why rebel and change the world if you can't get what's missing in your life? And what is most definitely missing in our lives is love and lust.'' So while not a balanced autobiography, this book does offer valuable insight. As fundamentalism grows in the Middle East and more women return to the veil, the repressive lifestyle Mernissi depicts may not be just a sad relic of the past but an ominous sign of the future. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

Baradah The Game of Forgetting : A Novel (Modern Middle East Literatures in Translation Series) Muhammad Baradah, et al / Paperback / Published 1996; Suggested Price: $10.95; (June 1996) Univ of Texas Pr; ISBN: 0292708459	The Game of Forgetting. From Kirkus Reviews , May 15, 1996 The Game of Forgetting ($10.95 paperback original; June 1996; 150 pp.; 0-292-70845-9). Subtitled ``A Novelistic Text,'' this densely layered portrait of family life in 1950s Morocco employs multiple narrators, alternative beginnings, and other self-reflexive and postmodernist techniques to depict its protagonist, the young intellectual Hadi, very specifically as a product of his unstable culture and in his conflicted relations with the members of his large extended family--all of whom are viewed as having contributed crucially to the formation of what might be called his polyglot personality. Both as theory and as story, a wise, humane, and deeply involving work. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. Book Description On the surface of this novel, various members of a Moroccan family recount their versions of the family's experiences under the French Protectorate and since Independence. On a deeper level, the book deals with human memory and how it forms one's experience of the world. Some critics have found the Arabic original to be similar to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. Outstanding Moroccan novelist and critic Mohamed Berrada first published Lu'bat al-Nisyan in 1987, and it has since been translated into French and Spanish. Called the first postmodern novel in Arabic, the story is written in such a captivating style that it has become a bestseller in the Arab world. Apart from its postmodern modes of narration and metafictional structure, the novel has elements of an autobiographical nature. Hadi, his mother, brother and other characters subtly portray the lives experienced by people from various classes and different backgrounds. The narrator and the narrator's narrator take these nuances and struggle with how a story, any story, should be told. Change in Moroccan culture and in the psyche of the main protagonist is painted artfully by the encircling wealth of detail. Return to the Top!

Golden Chariot (The Arab Women Writers Series)	Golden Chariot. This satirical novel is set within the walls of a women's prison located outside Cairo during the Nasser era. It focuses on a member of the Alexandrian aristocracy imprisoned for murder and, according to Latifah al-Zayat, is written in a style "similar to the style of folk-tales (al-haki al-sha'bi) which depends on digression, description, accumulation of seemingly separate details, and turning dramatic events into narrative." It is a novel of narrative sophistication which was widely praised in its original Arabic publication and has since been translated into English and other European languages. Return to the Top!

Shaykh I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops by Hanan Shaykh, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Catherine Cobham (Translator)	I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops. The Washington Post Book World, Ahdaf Soueif Al-Shaykh has a subtle touch and a mischievous sense of humor.... If one or two of the endings are a touch melodramatic, it is because she cares more for fantastical detail than for resolutions. Her stories are like the silk her characters are so fond of. From Booklist Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh offers a stunning collection of short stories detailing the complexities of contemporary Arab life. Tenuously poised between the cultures of the East and the West, between the safety of traditional values and the lure of modernity, Al-Shaykh's characters struggle to define themselves and their relationships in an increasingly confusing and often hostile environment. In the title story, a young woman painfully compromises her principles and her selfhood in an attempt to please an English youth. "A Season of Madness" features a bitterly unhappy housewife who concocts an ironically successful scheme to convince her husband she is insane. "The Marriage Fair" provides a bittersweet look at an age-old custom that attempts to bridge the gulf between the romance of courtship and the reality of lifelong commitment. Laced with pathos, insight, and gentle humor, the 17 stories that constitute this delectable collection provide the reader with a provocative glimpse into the multifaceted complexion of the modern Arab world. Margaret Flanagan Book Description Since the U.S. publication of Women of Sand and Myrrh--which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly--Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories--eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time--al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures--as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" (Middle Eastern International). Return to the Top!

Soueif In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif	In the Eye of the Sun. From Kirkus Reviews , March 1, 1993 Soueif, born in Egypt and living in Britain, makes her American debut with a novel that details a young Egyptian woman's exasperatingly drawn-out journey to autonomy amidst the turmoil of contemporary Middle East politics. Opening the story with the cancer operation on her beloved uncle Hamid in London in 1979, protagonist Asya drops a few names, hints at old griefs, then returns to 1967 Cairo. The Arab-Israeli war has just begun--an event that's much debated in the adolescent Asya's family, since both her father and uncle Hamid were once imprisoned for their politics. Political quotes abound and, though adding authenticity, are heavy-handed reminders not only that Asya holds passive sympathies for Egyptian nationalism and the PLO, but that this is a serious novel with admirably serious themes--like the role of women in Islamic society, and the enduring ties to family and tradition. Asya, the daughter of two professors, has more freedom than her contemporaries, but even her educated parents insist on a long formal courtship before she can marry handsome Saif Madi--a four-year delay that, Asya claims, ruins their sex life. Saif is a generous but manipulative cipher, and the couple have zip communication, yet Asya insists she loves him. Meanwhile, she goes to graduate school; attends a bleak northern British university where she has impulsively decided to do her Ph.D.; and Saif makes his infrequent visits. Time will pass slowly as her marriage slowly disintegrates; her dissertation is slowly completed; and Asya slowly decides to end her affair with uncouth Gerald. But Asya is also slowly growing: home in Cairo, with a doctorate but no Saif, she realizes she's ``back into the sunlight still in complete possession of herself.'' Within this mass of often ill-assorted detail--every note for the dissertation seems to be included--lurks a story that's worth telling, but finding it is not always easy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

Atiya Khul-Khaal : Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories Nayra Atiya / Paperback / Published 1982/ Suggested Price: $15.95 (September 1982) Amer Univ in Cairo Pr; ISBN: 0815601816	Five Egyptian Women. Reviewer: Erika Mitchell from Dubai, UAE This book presents the life stories of five working class women from Egypt in the 1970s. Atiya has masterfully written the tales in the voices of the women who told them to her. The stories contain fascinating ethnographic information about living conditions and customs of the region and the time. Together, they give a picture of women's issues in Egypt, especially regarding family bonds and power, women's work, establishment of gender roles, marriage, and female circumcision. Reviewer: Nicky Enright from NYC My primary interest was "Ancient Egypt" when I first arrived in Egypt, but I quickly became fascinated by the contemporary culture as well. I searched for books that would illuminate what I was seeing around me, in vain. I was especially interested in the plight of women in Egypt, and there didn't seem to be much writing on the subject. Luckily I came across this gem of a book which turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. The stories of 5 Egyptian women are lucidly told by this remarkable Egyptian author. This book gives a glimpse into a world one must usually be born into in order to understand. Thank you Ms. Atiya! Return to the Top!

Soueif The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif; 529 pages (September 12, 2000); Anchor Books; ISBN: 0385720114	The Map of Love. Amazon.com Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love is a massive family saga, a story that draws its readers into two moments in the complex, troubled history of modern Egypt. The story begins in 1977 in New York. There Isabel Parkman discovers an old trunk full of documents--some in English, some in Arabic--in her dying mother's apartment. Incapable of deciphering this stash by herself, she turns to Omar al-Ghamrawi, a man with whom she is falling in love. And Omar directs her in turn to his sister Amal in Cairo. Together the two women begin to uncover the stories embedded in the journal of Lady Anna Winterbourne, who traveled to Egypt in 1900 and fell in love with Sharif Pasha al-Barudi, an Egyptian nationalist. To their surprise, they stumble across some unsuspected connections between their own families. Less surprising, perhaps, is the persistence of the very same issues that dogged their ancestors: colonialism, Egyptian nationalism, and the clash of cultures throughout the Middle East. The past, however, does offer some semblance of omniscience: That is the beauty of the past; there it lies on the table: journals, pictures, a candle-glass, a few books of history. You leave it and come back to it and it waits for you--unchanged. You can turn back the pages, look again at the beginning. You can leaf forward and know the end. And you tell the story that they, the people who lived it, could only tell in part. With its multiple narratives and ever-shifting perspectives, The Map of Love would seem to cast some doubt on even the most confident historian's version of events. Yet this subtle and reflective tale of love does suggest that the relations between individuals can (sometimes) make a difference. "I am in an English autumn in 1897," Amal confesses at one point, "and Anna's troubled heart lies open before me." Here, perhaps, is a hint about how we should read Soueif's staggering novel, using words as a means to travel through time, space, and identity. --Vicky Lebeau. From Booklist In parallel love stories set nearly 100 years apart, Soueif combines politics and romance in something of an eternal spiral connecting two families and two cultures. Isabel travels from New York to Cairo with a trunk containing diaries and possessions of her great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne. Omar, a conductor of international fame (and the man Isabel loves), refers her to his sister Amal for help in understanding the contents. What he fails to tell her is that they are distant cousins: Sharif, the man who becomes Anna's husband, is Amal and Omar's great-uncle. And so, in turn, we learn of Anna's life and love for Sharif and her adopted country and of Isabel and Omar. Amal, the link between the two worlds, untangles the old story and entangles a new one. By juxtaposing the past with the present, the prejudices and politics are contrasted with each other and are shown to be remarkably similar. This, a very romantic book with Anna as its most interesting character, offers insights into both historic and modern Egypt. Danise Hoover; Copyright © American Library Association. Return to the Top!

Saadawi Memoirs of a Woman Doctor Nawal El Saadawi / Paperback / 1989/ Price: $7.16; 101 p.; City Lights Books; ISBN: 0872862232	Memoirs of a Woman Doctor. Reviewer: George Schaefer, from Croydon, PA USA This is a heart rending book as one reads about the sexism that pervades Middle Eastern culture. el Saadawi is a courageous woman who dared to fight against the system. This book was no doubt a great controversy in her homeland of Egypt and quite possibly still is. The autobiographical tones are apparent which makes it an ever sadder tale. Freedom as she argues should exist for all--both men and women. The way her upbringing taught her to feel ashamed and inferior is horrible. But it is equally inspiring that she had the courage and fortitude to triumph over these overwhelming odds. Occasionally humanity does rise above the ugliness. This is one such triumph. It is poignant but also a worthwhile read. Return to the Top!

Brooks Nine Parts of Desire : The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks; (January 1996) Anchor Books; ISBN: 0385475772	Nine Parts of Desire. Amazon.com Geraldine Brooks spent two years as a Middle East news correspondent, covering the death of Khomeini and the like. She also learned a lot about what it's like for Islamic women today. Brooks' book is exceedingly well-done--she knows her Islamic lore and traces the origins of today's practices back to Mohammed's time. Personable and very readable, Brooks takes us through the women's back door entrance of the Middle East for an unusual and provocative view. From Booklist During her six years covering the Middle East for the Wall Street Journal, Brooks sought to find out how Muslim women feel about their societies' attitudes toward women. What she discovered is sometimes astonishing, sometimes shocking, but always fascinating. Taking on the hijab (the Muslim woman's black veil) herself, Brooks talked with women throughout the Islamic world, reexamined the Koran, spent time with fundamentalist and feminist alike, and emerged with a deeper understanding of the religion as one that once empowered but now cripples women. She found, for instance, that Iran is one of the better Islamic countries for women, Saudi Arabia the worst; that the hijab can be strangely liberating; that enjoyment of their sexuality is an inherent right for Muslim women; and that to be a feminist under Islam calls for a daily form of courage almost incomprehensible to the Western mind. Brooks is a wonderful writer and thinker; the observations she makes and the conclusions she reaches open both our eyes and our minds to understanding Muslim women anew. Mary Ellen Sullivan. From Kirkus Reviews , October 15, 1994 A well-crafted, absorbing account of Islamic women's lives as seen through the eyes of a secular-minded, Australian-born feminist journalist. Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent Brooks describes with sensitivity and clarity her conversations and relationships with Islamic women, from the blue-jean-clad, American-born queen of Jordan to a devout Palestinian who shares her abusive husband with another woman in a four-room hovel with 14 children. Many of the obstacles she describes are well known: Some Islamic women are not allowed to show flesh or pray out loud in public (their voices are too arousing and could provoke unholy thoughts in men); many professions are closed to women; and severe sexual double standards still exist. However, Brooks's lively interpretations of Islamic tradition offer a useful challenge to Western stereotypes. According to her, Mohammed's teachings on the role of Islamic women, not to mention his living example, are complex and contradictory, often in direct opposition to the gender politics of today's extreme fundamentalists. Unfortunately, the author's naive faith in her own culture's progress allows her to make some rather arrogant statements, such as, ``Like most Westerners, I always imagined the future as an inevitably brighter place, where a kind of moral geology will have eroded the cruel edges of past and present wrongs. But in Gaza and Saudi Arabia...the future is a place that looks darker every day.'' Stemming from a similar blind spot, perhaps, is the short shrift given to Middle Eastern feminist activists and scholars. Few organized women's movements are discussed, and Brooks's treatment of Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi's persecution by the radical Islamic group Jihad and the Egyptian government totally overlooks the influence she has had; many believe Saadawi and other feminists are responsible, for example, for the Egyptian government's partial banning of clitoridectomy. Nonetheless, Brooks is a fine storyteller, though at times her tales feel incomplete. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

Handal The Poetry of Arab Women : A Contemporary Anthology by Nathalie Handal (Editor) (Paperback - October 2000); 352 pages (October 2000) Interlink Pub Group; ISBN: 1566563747	The Poetry of Arab Women. From Publishers Weekly "The anthology was prepared to eradicate invisibility," writes Nathalie Handal (The Never Field) of Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. With research help from groups like RAWI (Radius of Arab-American Writers, Inc.) and from Arab-American newspapers and journals like Al Jadid, Handal has gathered work from "most of the older and newer contemporary voices" of the Arab diaspora over 80 poets writing in Arabic, French, English and other languages, and living in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and the U.S. Handal's introduction, along with biographical notes on the poets and many translators, helps to place them. From Booklist The Arab world's poetic tradition predates Islam, but it was through the social revolution of Islam that it became possible to be a poet, an Arab, and a woman. Ancient Arab women are sometimes anthologized, but contemporary poets don't get the attention that they deserve and that this ambitious volume begins to give them. These poems were garnered from throughout the world and translated from Arabic, French, and other languages by many hands. Some of the featured poets have lived their whole lives outside the Arab world, and although many rely on Arab poetic traditions and forms, the "Arabness" of others is subtler. The book's contents vary in quality, for established poets like Naomi Shihab Nye are juxtaposed with little-known American graduate students. Yet out of a cacophony of voices, styles, and visions, deeper understanding of what it means to be an Arab and a poet can be obtained. Although it can be criticized for favoring breadth over depth, this anthology answers a long-felt need, and its arrival should be celebrated. John Green. Return to the Top!

Goodwin Price of Honor : Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World by Jan Goodwin; Reprint edition (August 1995) Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0452274303	Price of Honor. From Booklist Goodwin set out to investigate the status of women in 10 Islamic countries after being shocked and appalled at the brutal treatment of a nine-year-old girl she befriended while living in Peshawar, a frontier town on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her findings are profoundly disturbing and center on the enormous influence of radical Islamic fundamentalists, who have created a system of "gender apartheid" that has turned women into virtual prisoners. After providing deft descriptions of the current atmosphere in each country, she relates shocking stories of restriction, cruelty, abuse, and violence. Most Islamic women now live severely circumscribed lives. They are forbidden to go out without male chaperons and face harsh jail terms, or even death, for such "crimes" as failing to be fully concealed in a chador or other heavy, dark garments. Worse, of course, are the frequent beatings and rapes, many committed by the police. Men can divorce their wives secretly and are free to have several wives, while women are kept cloistered at home, suffering from depression and a host of ailments associated with lack of sunshine and exercise. This tragic state of affairs is all the more maddening given the fact than none of the more flagrant abuses have any basis in the Koran, which teaches respect for women as equal and invaluable partners in Muslim society. Goodwin takes pains to present balanced and well-documented information, making her revelations all the more alarming. Donna Seaman. From Kirkus Reviews , January 1, 1994 Chilling account of oppressive policies instituted against women in the Islamic world. Though select women in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Egypt, and Pakistan ``lift the veil of silence'' here to speak out against Islamic law, Goodwin focuses on the vast majority of Muslim women, who--willingly or not--are lowering the veil over their faces and lives. In much of the Middle East, egalitarian strides made between the 50s' and 70's have been reversed in the past 20 years of surging conservative Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and in this atmosphere women are singled out as potential sources of corruption. In Pakistan, for example, nurses are frequently accused of being immoral because they must work at night and care for male patients. All female government employees are ordered to wear Islamic dress, including chadors, which cover the head and most of the body. And while "rapists are allowed to go free...women victims are prosecuted.'' Most Muslim women, contends Goodwin, are given fewer rights than the Koran is designed to give them. While women must be virgins when married, men are encouraged to be polygamous: ``Hefty financial inducements are offered, and women themselves are encouraged personally to select another wife for their husbands.'' The few who speak out against such policies risk unemployment, isolation, or even death. With disturbingly graphic detail, Goodwin documents cruelties visited on Muslim women--using skills similar to those she employed in covering Russian atrocities against Afghans in Caught in the Crossfire (1987). Despite shrill polemics in an anti-Israel chapter: a significant book that gives a voice to millions of silent and silenced Muslim women. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!

Sasson Princess Sultana's Circle by Jean P. Sasson; 255 pages (May 2000) Windsor-Brooke Books; ISBN: 0967673712	Princess Sultana's Circle. Alexandra Ellison from Paradise Valley, AZ United States I bought this book, because I was intrigued and fascinated by the topic and the rather unusual publishing history. However, I was sorely disappointed. What a shame that such an important and riveting subject such as the hidden lives and sufferings of women in other cultures is treated in such a childish and vapid manner! Granted, Princess Sultana is a real person who is recounting her story, but that does not necessarily imply that this story should be presented as one of maturity and triumph. The final insult to women's suffering all over the world is Princess Sultana's post-mortem adulation of Princess Diana and her humane work. Can and should we really leave the never-ending struggle for women's dignity world-wide to rich, bored, psychologically disturbed twits? Reviewer: Lyn from Australia I am from Australia and I live a fairly simple life. Women have a fair go (compared to Arabia) and we can be anything we want to be. Reading these tales takes me to another world and shows me that despite what our media tells us, a materialistic way of life means nothing if your hands are tied in other ways and you don't have freedom. Princess Sultana is not happy! Even though she has "everything" she needs, I consider my life far happier, with less problems. I don't understand that if these people have so much money, why don't they leave their country and live a "normal" life in a western civilization, if there are so many problems in their homelands? This book made me sad. She tries so hard to be assertive, but the bottom line is, her husband will always win. She is an alcoholic because she has so much time on her hands. Why not put her time to better use and educate herself? If her husband loves her as much as she says he does, he would allow this! Thank God for our free way of life. How I love my one bedroom home with my one husband! Return to the Top!

Theroux Sandstorms : Days and Nights in Arabia by Peter Theroux; Reprint 1991 W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393307972	Sandstorms: Days & Nights in Arabia. Amazon.com Peter Theroux's fascination with the Arab culture goes back to his student days, when he won a fellowship to study in Cairo. Drawn initially to the Middle East by the West's romantic notions of it, Theroux stayed on, learning the language and eventually reporting on the region from his base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In Sandstorms he debunks some of the West's most cherished myths about the Arab world, at the same time putting a human face on a region long misunderstood. As Theroux mentions in his preface, much of his time in the Middle East was spent researching the 1978 disappearance of a Lebanese imam, Moussa Sadr. By the end of Sandstorms, Theroux has still not solved the riddle, but he has painted a remarkable portrait of the times, the people, and the politics of that volatile region. From Book News, Inc. , December 1, 1990 An anecdotal account of the author's experiences in the Middle East as a student, teacher, journalist, and tourist. No index or bibliography. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. Return to the Top!

Muhawi Speak, Bird, Speak Again : Palestinian Arab Folktales Ibrahim Muhawi, et al / Paperback / Published 1989; Suggested Price: $18.95; 420 pages (March 1989) Univ California Press; ISBN: 0520062922	Speak Bird, Speak Again. Book Description Were it simply a collection of fascinating, previously unpublished folktales, Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales would merit praise and attention because of its cultural rather than political approach to Palestinian studies. But it is much more than this. By combining their respective expertise in English literature and anthropology, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana bring to these tales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture. As native Palestinians, the authors are well-suited to their task. Over the course of several years they collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The authors have also provided footnotes, an international typology, a comprehensive motif index, and a thorough analytic guide to parallel tales in the larger Arab tradition in folk narrative. Speak, Bird, Speak Again is an essential guide to Palestinian culture and a must for those who want to deepen their understanding of a troubled, enduring people. Reviewer: Brian McDowell from USA I am presently taking a graduate class, which deals with orientalism, and we are using this book as a reference. I found the introduction to be a wonderful insight into the Arabian mind. The stories are short, well written, and whimsical. I enjoy each story, in itself and also its symbolism with other stories in the book. There are also "Afterwards" that explain the complexities of the stories and the Arabian culture. Return to the Top!

Saadawi Two Women in One Nawal Saadawi / Paperback / Published 1994/ Suggested Price: $7.96; 124 pages Reprint edition (December 1994) Women in Translation; ISBN: 1879679019	Two Women in One. From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith In contemporary Egypt, eighteen-year-old Bahiah Shaheen struggles to fill her inner need for independence. Her world consists of her family home and medical school, but she yearns for a freedom of which neither her mother nor her female classmates seem to be aware. As she looks at the women around her she is struck with despair by the falseness she feels about their lives. In her culture, where women's skirts bind their legs together by narrowing at the knees, she wears pants and causes people to wonder: "Was she a woman or a man?...But since she was a woman, it was legitimate to stare." Her involvement in a student uprising further defies her family and cultural expectations; it is a decision that changes her life. She notes: "We never know the reality of things: we see only what we are aware of. It is our consciousness that determines the shape of the world around us - its size, motion and meaning." Much of this story is told through Bahiah's thoughts, which are not always literal, imbuing the reality of her life with a dream-like quality. With her awareness, drive, and action, Bahiah Shaheen's search for a life different from the expected provides insight into the power of ancient and traditional Egyptian culture over women's lives. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. Return to the Top!

Bagader Voices of Change : Short Stories by Saudi Arabian Women Writers Abu Bakr Bagader Pub. 1997;$15.95; Three Continents Pr; ISBN: 1555877753	Voices of Change. Reviewer: lisatheratgirl from New York, NY This collection of short stories from a society so vastly different from that of our own left me feeling a tremendous respect for the authors, producing literary works of art in a country where women's freedom is limited, as well as the characters they created. I want to point out that this is NOT a "male-bashing" book. Although the authors are all women, the editors and translators are 2 men and 2 women, and characters of both genders are portrayed as a mixture of good and bad, i.e. human. The characters are to an extent a reflection of their society, but they are dealing with problems (alcohol, drugs, divorce, child abuse, etc.) that are not unique to any society. The stories show great sensitivity and compassion and in addition reveal more about life in a country that many Americans know little about. Return to the Top!

Amir The Waiting List : An Iraqi Woman's Tales of Alienation Dayzi Amir, Pub 1995; $7.16; Univ of Texas Pr; ISBN: 0292790678	The Waiting List. Reviewer: goldenmaxi@aol.com from Seattle, WA I was expecting woeful tales of life as a female in Muslim society but I was wrong. Her stories are wonderful in the context of just being a human female. She thinks of a lot of the things that I do, for example obsessing over someone else's possessions at a yard sale. Her insight into male/female thinking is very poignant. This is a bargain book and leads me to seek out other female Arab writers works. Return to the Top!

Al-Qa'Id War in the Land of Egypt (Emerging Voices) Yusuf Al-Qa'Id, et al / Paperback / Published 1997/ Suggested Price: $10.36; 192 pages (November 1997) Interlink Pub Group; ISBN: 1566562279	War in the Land of Egypt. Amazon.com Yusuf Al-Qa'id's War in the Land of Egypt was banned in his native country but published to wide acclaim outside of Egypt. The first of his novels to be translated into English, it tells the story of Masri (the only character with a name), a young Egyptian peasant who is sent into the Egyptian army on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur war in place of a rich man's son. Al-Qa'id tells his tale from several different perspectives: that of the village headman (the Umda) whose son Masri will replace; the broker who finds Masri; the hapless young man's father; his friend; his commanding officer; and finally, the investigator sent to look into the switch. The one character we do not hear from is Masri. It soon becomes apparent why this book was banned in Egypt, as Al-Qa'id uses the events surrounding the war to indict the bureaucratic corruption and social inequality rife in his country. Each character represents a different facet of Egyptian society with Masri himself, by virtue of his name (which, in Arabic, translates as "Egyptian"), standing for Everyman. Political this novel doubtless is, but it is also a masterfully crafted piece of fiction and a genuine page-turner as well. --Alix Wilber. From Booklist The first of Al-Qa'id's 11 novels to be published in English is the account of an Umda, a village politician, who plots to get his youngest son out of army service during what turns out to be the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. The novel begins with Sadat returning land nationalized by Nasser; The Umda's land is soon restored to him, and he is suddenly once again the most powerful man in his region. To get his son out of the service, he turns to "The Broker," a former teacher who has learned how to manage the loopholes of Egypt's bureaucracy. A replacement is found for the Umda's son. When the war begins and the replacement is sent to the front lines, the novel becomes a broiling indictment of Egyptian double standards. Not surprisingly, it was long banned in its home country. Each chapter is inventively told by a different character, but none by either of the two boys at the plot's center. A welcome addition to any international fiction collection. David Cline. From Independent Publisher War in the Land of Egypt is a Kafkaesque tale of corruption, bureaucracy, and class division, set in Egypt during the 1973 October war. Al-Qa'id's ironic parody loses none of its black-comedic bite in the translation to English, while the characters and their motives-though individuals brought vividly to life-are universally recognizable and need no cultural transliteration. Multiple characters representing various strata of Egyptian society relate this tragic farce of how a poor family is crushed by the whims of the rich and the oppressive weight of a bureaucracy designed to serve only the interests of the rich. The sumptuous mosaic of modern life in the land of the pharaohs was banned in Egypt when originally published there in 1975.Artistically, the structure of War in the Land of Egypt is both pleasing and exceptionally fitting as a chronicle of modern Egyptian life. The combined narratives of each nameless storyteller form a pyramid, with Masri, the only named character and also the only one deprived of telling his own story, at the apex. The title too is particularly appropriate, referring not just to the external conflict, but to the ageless struggle that has raged among the Egyptian people themselves. Qa'id, a prolific writer with 11 novels and four short-story collections to his name, is one of a new generation of Egyptian writers credited with advancing the relatively new art of the Arab novel. War in the Land of Egypt is a testament to his skills. Return to the Top!

Bakr The Wiles of Men and Other Stories Salwa Bakr, Denys Johnson-Davies / 1993 $11.96; 178 pp. ISBN: 0292708009	The Wiles of Men. No review--yet!

Al-Shaykh Women of Sand and Myrrh Hannan Al-Shaykh, Published 1992; Suggested Price: $8.80	Women of Sand and Myrrh. From Kirkus Reviews , June 1, 1992 The realities of life in the gilded cage for contemporary Arab women--in the first US publication from Lebanese-born writer al- Shaykh. Though imbued with an urgent sense of lives blighted and talents wasted, al-Shaykh--in telling her four women protagonists' stories--makes her points by accumulating illustrative detail rather than launching a polemic. In a nameless Middle Eastern city, four friends struggle to make full lives in a society where women cannot drive a car, walk in the streets unveiled, and, if they do have jobs, must work in segregated areas. It's also a society where sex, because of all the constraints, becomes an unhealthy obsession. Only one of the women, Suzanne, a Texan there with her husband on assignment, enjoys the Middle Eastern way of life. As a Westerner, she has more freedom but, more importantly, with her marriage failing--she suspects her husband is gay--she enjoys the attention of the men attracted by her novelty. Suha, a well- educated Lebanese woman, came with her husband to escape the war- -but finding the stifling boredom worse than any bombing, and ashamed of a lesbian relationship with wealthy Nur, she returns to Beirut. Nur, the daughter of a wealthy Bedouin, is the quintessential bored rich woman who seeks sensation at the expense of her marriage to a Western-educated, would-be reformer. And Tamr, whose Turkish mother had been sent to a sheik's harem as a young girl and was married herself at 12, is encouraged by Suha to divorce and then, with the obligatory permission from her closest male relative, start a small, and of necessity women's-only, business. An eloquent and subtle plea for liberalization, as well as an evocative description of a society torn between tradition and the West. A promising debut. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. Return to the Top!