| In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 20 reviews)
Sales Rank: 34565
Category: Book
Author: Qanta A. Ahmed
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Studio: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Manufacturer: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Label: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 1402210876
Dewey Decimal Number: 610.82092
EAN: 9781402210877
ASIN: 1402210876
Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"In this stunningly written book, a Western trained Muslim doctor brings alive what it means for a woman to live in the Saudi Kingdom. I've rarely experienced so vividly the shunning and shaming, racism and anti-Semitism, but the surprise is how Dr. Ahmed also finds tenderness at the tattered edges of extremism, and a life-changing pilgrimage back to her Muslim faith." - Gail Sheehy
The decisions that change your life are often the most impulsive ones.
Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong.
What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom is a world apart, a land of unparralled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her, but also humor, honesty, loyalty and love.
And for Qanta, more than anything, it is a land of opportunity. A place where she discovers what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women. (20080801)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 enjoyable read November 11, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book. I was frustrated because the events described happened around 8 years ago. I'm curious what the situation in Saudi Arabia is like now - the same, better, or worse? I was also a bit perplexed by the author's fascination with female physical beauty, since from an ardent feminist's point of view this would be yet another pathetic submission to male dominance/control. So, the author - like Saudi Arabia - is a bit of a contradiction.
 wonderful book November 10, 2008
My book club read this book for November. I LOVED this book. Very well written, very eye-opening. Absolutely fascinating book. I think that the more Americans read this book, the better we will begin to understand others. I knew a little bit about Saudi Arabia and Islam, and the book was very educational for me. I found the stories of various Saudi women riveting, and loved reading about how different events and meeting different people changed Qanta's views of herself, Saudi men, Saudi women, Islam, etc. Medical descriptions were interesting but not overwhelming or too difficult for "lay people" (like myself) to understand. I highly recommend it, and love the ending!
In the Land of Invisible Women November 9, 2008
I found this book very interesting. The figurative language that Dr. Ahmed uses is amazing! I did, however, get a little mixed up with some of the terms she used (a glossary of words related to Islam would have been nice to include). I learned a lot about Islam and life in Saudi Arabia. While as an Evangelical Christian I am at a different place theologically, I find it important to have an understanding of other beliefs and this gave me that. As an American and a woman, it made me appreciate the freedoms I have had all my life and ashamedly sometimes take for granted. For that reason everyone should read this book and be grateful if they live in a country where they can come and go, vote, drive, worship etc as they want and if they don't have those rights, then fight for them, they are worth the sacrifice. Thanks Dr. Ahmed for a glimpse into your heart.
A sad and honest eye opener November 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dr. Qanta Ahmed is a Muslin British citizen of Pakistani descent. She grew up in London and then attended medical school in New York City-obtaining certifications in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, critical care medicine and sleep disorder medicine. Then in 2000 her visa renewal was denied. While rectifying this problem, she needed to live and work outside the U.S., so she took a two-year position at the top hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This memoir details her time there.
Before going to Riyadh, Qanta had been warned about the many ways that the Saudi Kingdom represses women-both Saudi nationals and expatriates working there. She initially felt that being a Muslim with Pakistani coloring would give her a leg up. This was not to be the case. Her Muslin upbringing in a liberal, educated British home and then her experiences in American medical schools barely scratched the surface of what she was expected to know and how she was expected to behave in the different circumstances of Saudi society.
Qanta extremely carefully depicts Saudi life. She covers the mundane as well as a thorough description of her trip to Mecca to complete the Hajj (the religious pilgrimage that all Muslims are required to make during their lifetime). While there she feels a strong religious uplifting that changed many of her previous views about being a Muslim-and being a Muslim woman in a Muslim society that is ruled by theocratic conservatives. The Quran (Koran) teaches that all humans are to be treated with respect, but she becomes more and more aware of the discrepancies between the written teachings and the actions of the religious police (Mutawaeen).
Qanta Ahmed tells about her friendships with Saudi nationals, both women and men, and the difficulties involved with simple gatherings of friends. Like Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran does with Iran, this book provides a realistic picture of life in the Saudi Kingdom.
It is a substantial book and should be savored by readers who feel as I do, that the more we know about the inner workings of countries the more understanding we have of their policies and their view of us.
Armchair Interview says: Just shy of 450 pages, the Reading Group guide makes this an excellent book group choice.
A ra'y of light on the women of Saudi Arabia November 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Even in a land where one cannot experience the pungent aroma of freshly mowed grass and where the desiccation of religious oppression matches the aridity of its climate, one can still find a ra'y of individual reasoning and integrity that sets itself apart from the rigidity of historical and legal tradition. This book, written by a medical doctor who resided and practiced medicine for a short time in Saudi Arabia, is a good example of this. Written in a spirit of both rebellion and detached analysis, the author does not arrest the flow of her words when she conveys to the reader what it is like to live in Saudi Arabia, or in what she calls the "land of invisible women."
One feels an overpowering sense of claustrophobia when reading this book. It is as if the legal and religious institutions of Saudi Arabia, entrenched in the author's opinion in the Islamic doctrine of Wahabiism, close in on its citizens, boxing them up and putting them under the pitiful guise of the "Mutawaeen" (the state-appointed religious police). She refers to the Kingdom as a prison, and if her experience is common, this designation seems all too accurate.
Interesting though is that there are many parallels of Saudi society with Western society, many of these being brought out inadvertently by the author. Western society still has to a large degree an excess of veneration towards leaders and hierarchies, i.e. a "deep loyalty for royalty" as the author describes one Saudi woman's attitude in the book. In addition, money seems to trump rational judgment in both societies, and both are dominated by the lust for admiration by those who possess wealth. And both Saudi and Western societies are polluted by religion, the only difference here being one of blatant expression in the Saudi kingdom versus a subtle but irritating presence in the West. Religion has an appreciable gravitational pull in both societies.
The author still managed to practice medicine during her time there, this taking place in spite of the cultural weights that were placed on her. In this respect one wonders if in the final analysis that being a good physician is in any way affected by the cultural norms of Saudi society. It seems as if her abilities to heal remained unaffected by her "invisibility." Certainly the patients she healed did not view her as invisible.
But after reading about the legislated male supremacy, the "turbocharged testosterone", and the frequently ignored violence against women, one can only conclude that there is something awry in the Saudi male psyche. Why do they need these oppressive legal institutions? Do they make their chances of securing a woman more probable? If these institutions went away, would they be able to attract the attentions of free and independent Saudi women, full of "joie de vivre"? Would such women intimidate them? Do they cloak themselves in law and religion and their women in abbayahs to mask their insecurities? In this regard, a better title of this book would be "In The Land of Insecure Men."
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