In the land of invisible women
Subtitle: a female doctor's journey in the Saudi Kingdom
By: Qanta A. Ahmed
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Naperville, Ill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 454
ISBN-13: 9781402210877
Copyright date: 2008
Subjects: Religion and Medicine; Women in medicine; Women physicians; Women Physicians; Personal Narratives; Muslim physicians; Biography; Islam
First sentence: SEEKING RESPITE FROM THE INTENSITY of medicine, I trained my eye on the world without.
Description: From the Publisher: "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 unparalleled 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [445]-446).
Table of contents: title: 1:  Bedouin bedside; title: 2:  Time to leave America; title: 3:  My new home, a military compound; title: 4:  Abbayah shopping; title: 5:  Invisible and safe; title: 6:  Saudi women who dance alone; title: 7:  Veiled doctors; title: 8:  Lost boys of the kingdom; title: 9:  Father's grieving; title: 10:  Invitation to God; title: 11:  Epicenter of Islam; title: 12:  Into the light; title: 13:  Child of God; title: 14:  Million-man wheel; title: 15:  Committing Haram; title: 16:  Calling Doctora; title: 17:  Daughters of the desert; title: 18:  Next stop: absolution; title: 19:  Prayer under the stars; title: 20:  Between the devil and the Red Sea; title: 21:  Mutawaeen: the men in brown; title: 22:  Single Saudi male; title: 23:  Calm before the storm; title: 24:  Wahabi wrath; title: 25:  Doctor Zhivago of Arabia; title: 26:  Love in the kingdom; title: 27:  Show me your marriage license!; title: 28:  Eye for an eye; title: 29:  Princes, polygamists, and paupers; title: 30:  Divorce, Saudi-style; title: 31:  Saudi Divorcee; title: 32:  Desperate housewives; title: 33:  Making of a female Saudi surgeon; title: 34:  Hot mamma; title: 35:  Gloria Steinem of Arabia; title: 36:  Champion of children; title: 37:  9/11 in Saudi Arabia; title: 38:  Final moments, final days; title: Afterword:  Rugged glory; title: Endnotes; title: Bibliography; title: Reading group guide; title: Acknowledgments.