Title: The media relations department of Hizbollah wishes you a happy birthday
Description: Since his boyhood in Qadhafi's Libya, Neil MacFarquhar has developed a counterintuitive sense that the Middle East, despite all the bloodshed in its recent history, is a place of warmth, humanity, and generous eccentricity. In this book, he introduces a cross-section of unsung, dynamic men and women pioneering political and social change. There is the Kuwaiti sex therapist in a leather suit with matching red headscarf, and the Syrian engineer advocating a less political interpretation of the Koran. MacFarquhar interacts with Arabs and Iranians in their every day lives, removed from the violence we see constantly, yet wrestling with the region's future. These are people who realize their region is out of step with the world and are determined to do something about it—on their own terms.
Subjects: Anecdotes, Biography, Description and travel, Nonfiction, Political culture, Politics, Politics and government, Social change, Social life and customs, Travel, General, Manners and customs, HISTORY, New York Times reviewed, Middle east, social life and customs, Middle east, politics and government, Middle east, description and travel, Middle east, biography
Places: Middle East
People: Neil MacFarquhar
Time periods: 1979-