From Amazon:
There are 800 million Muslims in the world today, yet Islam is one of the world's least understood and appreciated religions. The culture of Islamic women and the mystery of a veiled society have endured any number of uninformed or hostile interpretations. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea spent the first two years of her marriage in the 1950s living in El Nahra, a small village in Southern Iraq, and her book is a personal narrative about life behind a veil in a community unaccustomed to Western women. She arrived speaking only a few words of Arabic and feeling dubious about her husband's expectation that she adapt completely to the segregated society in order to accommodate his anthropological study. When she left two years later she was an accepted and loved member of the village, inspired for a lifetime of work in Middle Eastern studies. The story of her life among the Iraqis is eye-opening, written with intellectual honesty as well as love and respect for a seemingly impenetrable society. Although the book was originally published in 1965, it surfaced again during the Gulf War in 1991 when many small villages were destroyed in Southern Iraq. This book gives readers a fuller sense of those communities and brings home the cost of war waged against civilians.

Bookring Members:
Joanthro CO (SHIP INTL)
LESEHEST NORWAY (SHIP INTL)
katyan FINLAND (SHIP INTL)
zzz SERBIA (SHIP EUROPE)
Skunkie86 ITALY (SHIP EUROPE)
cnfotp UK (SHIP INTL)
mairbu JAPAN (SHIP INTL)
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EMA375 CA

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The book arrived safely in Denver on 11/21! Thank goodness for Thanksgiving - I should be able to read this right away.

Well so much for holiday optimism! I did read this pretty quickly, but never had the opportunity to mail it off until yesterday!

Overall, I thought this was a great read. Fernea's writing was excellent and very readable. She told an interesting and compelling story that can be enjoyed by anyone interested in learning about another culture. I enjoyed the viewpoint we get as readers 50 years after the fact - especially the part about the local woman who wanted to tatoo Fernea's "backside"! I thought it was wonderfully funny to picture the young American woman of the 1950s, trying to explain that her husband would NOT like her backside tatooed and comparing it to a young American woman now who might be craving a tatoo that is truly "authentic" because she got in in Iraq from a local woman!

Thanks so much for making this book available, EMA375!

Received in the mail today. Looking forward to reading it. Hopefully I will finish before I go to Ghana...

This book came to me today from Ghana! So it is well travelled! I'll read it soon!

I finished reading this book today, and I really loved it. It was a beautifull describtion of Iraqis women and their life in a small village. I really felt going in their life and culture, and really appreciated the way the author told about them; giving a lovely story to the readers often from an Iraqi point of view.
Now for the first time I also could understant the use of the abayah (the black cloak the ladies wear to cover themselves) and the shelter it gives to the women. Until now I've been mostly a bit scared or judging the use of them, but now I was thinking that actually it would be sometimes lovely to use a cloth like that myself... It can give such a shelter to the person underneath.
But that was not the main thing in the book, the most beautifull thing was how the author little by little made friends from the ladies around her, and got the know their culture beter, and how she was so humble in knowing the new culture she lived in. I think she must have been really courageous in her own way.
I'm really happy I read this book, and will surely recommend it to my friends. Thank you so much for sharing it! I'll send it soon to zzz who's the next person in this ring. Happy Eastern to you all!

I read this book also as a part of my Book from every country in the world-challenge (Iraq).

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll send this book today to zzz! Enjoy!

Book has arrived today ‘safe and sound’. katyan thank you so much for sending it and for lovely postcard and EMA375 for sharing it. I’m sure this will be enjoyable read however I’m in the army right now which means I don’t have time for reading like I used to but I’ll do my best :)

I'm SO incredibly sorry for this massive delay!
I've read this book long time ago in the army but later I moved in other town and was in huge mess in sorting things with new apartment etc. I still have some books (and other stuff) in boxes and that's why this book is still with me. I'm so sorry.
I'll mail it to the next BCer as soon as possible.

ETA June 20th:
I PMed cnfotp since Skunkie86 is no longer in the BC database.
Waiting address ...

ETA: June 25th:
book is on its way to cnfotp :)

Arrived last week, sorry for not journalling until now. Am reading already and really enjoying!