Download In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, by Qanta Ahmed
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In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, by Qanta Ahmed
Download In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, by Qanta Ahmed
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From Publishers Weekly
This memoir is a journey into a complex world readers will find fascinating and at times repugnant. After being denied a visa to remain in the U.S., British-born Ahmed, a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin, takes advantage of an opportunity, before 9/11, to practice medicine in Saudi Arabia. She discovers her new environment is defined by schizophrenic contrasts that create an absurd clamorous clash of modern and medieval.... It never became less arresting to behold. Ahmed's introduction to her new environment is shocking. Her first patient is an elderly Bedouin woman. Though naked on the operating table, she still is required by custom to have her face concealed with a veil under which numerous hoses snake their way to hissing machines. Everyday life is laced with bizarre situations created by the rabid puritanical orthodoxy that among other requirements forbids women to wear seat belts because it results in their breasts being more defined, and oppresses Saudi men as much as women by its archaic rules. At times the narrative is burdened with Ahmed's descriptions of the physical characteristics of individuals and the luxurious adornments of their homes but this minor flaw is easily overlooked in exchange for the intimate introduction to a world most readers will never know. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From Booklist
Denied visa renewal in America, British-born Pakistani physician Ahmed, 31, leaves New York for a job in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she celebrates her Muslim faith on an exciting Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca even as she encounters rabid oppression from the state-sanctioned religious extremist police. She is licensed to operate ICU machines in the emergency ward, but as a woman, she is forbidden to drive, and she must veil every inch of herself. Her witty insider-outsider commentary as a Muslim and feminist, both reverent and highly critical, provides rare insight into the upper-class Saudi scene today, including the roles of women and men in romance, weddings, parenting, divorce, work, and friendship. After 9/11, she is shocked at the widespread anti-Americanism. The details of consumerism, complete with Western brand names, get a bit tiresome, but they are central to this honest memoir about connections and conflicts, and especially the clamorous clash of “modern and medieval, . . . Cadillac and camel.†--Hazel Rochman
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Product details
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks; 1 edition (September 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781402210877
ISBN-13: 978-1402210877
ASIN: 1402210876
Product Dimensions:
6 x 1.4 x 8.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
567 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#99,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is a book club selection that I must read. It is a tough go just because it is a disturbing topic. To think that women are treated as a bunch of 'black bundles' all sitting together in the airport...it is just too disturbing. I did learn much that should be given a wider distribution. I did not know that until the 1970's women in Saudi Arabia had all manner of privileges. It was the Saudi royal family's fear that the Wahabi sect could sieze their power that caused a pandering to the 'dark side' that covered women in black polyester and began their dreadful treatment. This pandering to the extremists has been the cause of so much of the destruction in that part of the world. May we all learn from that lesson.
I read this book not so much to learn about Dr. Qanta Ahmed's experience, but to recall my own. I wanted to say, "Yes! Yes! That's the way it was!" at every turn of the page, and I was able to do so. Her descriptions of sights, scents, sounds, clothing, surroundings and people are spot-on accurate. Perhaps I might have found those details excessive, had I not lived in Riyadh for twelve years, worked in a hospital, and experienced much of what she experienced. Her narrative portrays objective truth, for her and for me and for many women like us-- Westernized Muslims who have lived and worked in a Riyadh hospital during the 1980s and 90s.It also portrays an internal truth that rings true for me. In many ways, her story is an ordinary story, in that she progressed through the same adjustments we all experienced during our stay in Riyadh, yet nothing in Riyadh was ordinary. We single women who formed an esoteric group of medical professionals, both expatriate and Arab, shared a path-- a wonderful, exciting path that is portrayed beautifully in this book.A single woman could hardly spend any time in Riyadh without enduring her own Muttawa story, the elements of which are identical for all us us, though the details differ. We did not ride in cars too many times before being pursued by eager males, who sometimes latched onto our vehicles and didn't give up until our nervous drivers reached our combination havens/prisons behind gates and guards.We endured the uncertainty and confusion of how to relate to male colleagues from different areas of the world. We often fell in love with one or more of them. The term "Riyadh Romance" carried a specific meaning, referring to an attraction that blossomed there, but maybe withered when transplanted.We could hardly seek to understand anything without making peace with wearing the the abaya, and discovering that it, along with the scarf and sometimes face veil, let us glide comfortably through the same spaces our uncovered colleagues found awkward.We discovered the depths of emotion, talent, and ambition present in women who previously seemed insipid under their black wraps. We entered the lush world of Saudi femininity and saw-- literally-- what men are not allowed to see. We reclaimed the state of sisterhood we may have felt as prepubescent girls.We ended up in Mecca sooner or later, if we were Muslim, and we opened our hearts to God wider than they'd been opened before.We also learned that some ugly national stereotypes held up well under observation, just as those we carried with us from our countries of origin.We opened our eyes to complex political situations that showed us unequivocally that the poles of East and West really do intend to destroy each other on the glorified backdrop of justice. We learned to pray that those poles be dissolved, if not brought into the fold on a realistic backdrop of justice. We realized that the most we can achieve is a mitigation, not a restoration, of rights inherent to the state of human existence, rights that some people enjoy from birth, and others are denied.This memoir is, after all, a memoir, and should be read as such. For those of us who've lived in the Kingdom, it will bring memories into close focus. For others of us, it should inspire investigation into the subjects it addresses. I cannot imagine that this book could disappoint anyone who holds even a superficial interest in memoir, East-West relations, Islam, Saudi Arabia, or the expatriate experience in Riyadh.
This book is full of information. I thought that Saudi Arabia was like all the other Muslim countries but this book taught me that it has its very own Wahabi interpretation of Islam. The Saudis LIVE their religion, referring constantly to Allah and quoting the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Of course the oppression of women and these horrible, offensive, undignified abbayas and the harsh disciplinarian police are something I just cannot fathom.Although I am an atheist I understood the author's emotional and spiritual attraction to Hajj. Qanta Ahmed also shows that - like everywhere else in the world alas - there is discrimination between "pure Saudi" and other muslims as well as huge class distinctions even at Mecca, where the rich pilgrims pray in relative comfort whereas the poor have none. There are also descriptions of "vegas" like decorations in the houses ofthe very rich, the hugely expensive cars the men drive recklessly.The relationship between men and women, even in a working place like the hospital where Dr. Ahmed was a lung specialist and where she was in constant contact with male colleagues, was impossible because of the prevailing culture.This is a fantastic book written in a way that makes the reader understand a culture so different from the western. I wish more books like that were written.
Sometimes this book frustrated me. For instance, when the narrator didn't do research on Saudi culture before moving there from NYC, because she thought being Muslim was all she needed to fit in. (For instance, she waited until she was on the plane to check if her outfit was appropriate.) The would be like me saying I don't need to do research before moving to North Korea, because I'm an atheist, so it'll all be fine.Still, this was a fascinating book, and I truly enjoyed this glimpse into an exotic, distinctly foreign way of life. The Saudi obsession with gender segregation gave me food for thought, especially with all the current talk of sexual harassment in the workplace in the US. It's interesting to compare and contrast how these different cultures go about regulating sex and sexuality, and the consequences of each strategy.Saudi Arabia seems like a pretty grim, joyless place to live, and I'm glad the author went there and wrote about it, so I can learn about it without having to go there.Highly recommended for anyone interested in learning more about Saudi Arabia.
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