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    In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
    In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
    In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
    Audiobook14 hours

    In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom

    Written by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A strikingly honest look into Islamic culture—in particular women and Islam—and what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women.

    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 of Saudi Arabia 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.

    Very few Islamic books for women give a firsthand account of what it's like to live in a place where Muslim women continue to be oppressed and treated as inferior to men. But if you want to learn more about the Islamic culture in an unflinchingly real way, this book is for you.

    "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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 15, 2012
    ISBN9781455883028
    In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
    Author

    Qanta A. Ahmed, MD

    Dr. Qanta Ahmed spent her childhood in England, where she attended the University of Nottingham Medical School. She is quadruple boarded in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, critical-care medicine, and sleep-disorders medicine. She currently practices in South Carolina.

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    Reviews for In the Land of Invisible Women

    4/5

    280 ratings61 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Overly descriptive on mundane details, excruciatingly deferential, and very outdated

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book afforded me my first glimpse of what life is like for women under a regime of, essentially, Muslim fundamentalism. Ahmed worked hard to provide a variety of viewpoints and experiences, but throughout I wondered how deep her understanding of Saudi culture could be.

      While she is a Muslim, her own cultural background is completely different and she (by her own account) never became fluent in the native language, and that may have impaired her ability to observe accurately and report as well as one might wish.

      Still, it is a fascinating book; one that immediately drew me in and held my attention for several days. It has made me want to learn more about Mideastern culture and Islam.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      In one of the worst countries in the world for women, Pakistani Dr. Qanta discovers what's under the veil (lots of spirit and makeup) and what's in her heart (a newfound love of Islam). She takes a two year assignment at a hospital for royalty in Saudi Arabia, where, like all women, she is not permitted to leave her home without a abaya (full length robe), headscarf, and a male escort, and where Sharia law is strictly enforced.Dr. Qanta makes a point of meeting other female medical professionals, both native and ex-pats, and comparing notes. She's roused by the strong feminism she finds but discouraged at the impossibly slow pace of change, and intimidated by the brutal religious police, who patrol even the female only areas and seem to also have the even Saudi royals running scared. And then there's the oil wealthy idle scions/dudebros who race their expensive sports cars down every street, killing themselves others in crashes with nary a regret or a penalty.During her assignment, she falls in love with a Saudi doctor and makes the Hajj to Mecca twice. The passages on Hajj reminded me of the only other description of the solemn ritual I've ever read, that of Malcolm X in his autobiography. They both found incredible love and solidarity with other Muslims, but Dr. Qatar also is scorned by ultra conservative fellow female pilgrims, until she ministers to an ill woman who is one of the masses who cannot afford the luxury of a first class (complete with an air conditioned tent) pilgrimage experience. In general, the doctor never encounters any poor Saudis, and in fact, does not seek out anyone like the Filipinas and Indonesian women who comprise the servant classes. This is a weakness in the narrative. Perhaps her position is that Saudi life is miserable enough for wealthy women - even with their luxury autos and goods - that there's no reason to meet anyone who'd make her feel even more, or less, privileged.This is a valuable look at an awful place, swamped with the tribalism that seems forever married to Islam in a Wahhabi world.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I really disliked this book. It could have been so interesting, but the author was so shallow, so obsessed with looks. She was unable to stick to an opinion, constantly swayed by the next shiny thing. I am no writer, but her style seemed childish. This exerpt typifies her writing:"I turned to witness a tall and extraordinarily beautiful woman enter the room. Simultaneously stately and mischievous, she caught my eye at once. I signaled her to sit near me. ... Gadah had deep, shining brown saucers for eyes, surmounted by long, pharonic eyebrows and flawless, creamy skin. The expressive, extraordinary eyes dominated her face. She bubbled over with joy. Impala-like, Ghada was spectacularly beautiful. Hers was the index against which all the women here measured there beauty in meager, modest comparison."She carries on in this overblown manner, and does this every time she meets anyone new. I gave up.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Although the perspective of a western Muslim woman was Interesting, i felt this book was highly derivative and much of the territory better covered by Geraldine Brooks earlier publication "Nine Parts Desire". The personal spiritual journey was where the true story lay.
    • 2/5
      This lengthy book is not a story as such, but a series of experiences; essays describing the author’s stay in Saudi Arabia. As a result of the format there is some duplication of details. A very long section relating a pilgrimage to Mecca was long enough to have been published as a separate work. The narrative, in the early chapters especially, does not flow easily, sounds somewhat stilted, and includes many passages of purple prose. Tighter writing would have produced a book that comes across as more spontaneous, candid, and less pretentious.I found the author’s sympathy with Saudi men hard to understand considering their oppression toward women. In places prejudice was viewed as if it merely amounted to dainty Victorian-style manners. Repeated remarks about ultra-expensive brand names gave a shallow, materialistic quality throughout. (Yes, I know Saudis are incredibly rich but can you really identify Graff diamonds from any other – and under a black muslin veil to boot?) The overall impression I got from Ahmed’s book was not complimentary.
    • 3/5
      Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a British Muslim trained in New York City, takes a job at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, and begins a new life that is more surprising and challenging than she imagined. Ahmed's memoir details her life in Saudi Arabia, navigating the confusing and often contradictory Saudi culture. During her years in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed delves more deeply into her own faith, meets people who both amaze and befuddle her, and slowly learns the arcane laws that govern her adopted Kingdom. Ahmed's compassion for everyone she encounters is evident, and allows her Western readers to approach a foreign culture with the same open mind. And when she is ready to depart Saudi Arabia in September 2001, readers are just as shocked by what she encounters in her adopted Kingdom as she is. While the writing is sometimes clunky and the chronology feels off at times, this book is a unique look into a different world, from a wholly unique perspective. Well worth reading for a deeper understanding of the people, culture, and laws of a world we are often too quick to stereotype and dismiss.
    • 1/5
      Was this self-published? If so, she should have hired an editor. Most recent drivel I listened to on this audiobook was 12 minutes of describing a doctor she had a crush on. (All descriptions are hyperbolic, but this was hilarious.) She alternates between he has lean legs and he has thick muscular legs; his Adam’s apple is thick, but fleshy (whatever that means); his dark hair is lush and thick—no, wait, the hair is white and cut very short. Huh? All these descriptions read like soft porn romance novel nonsense. She never makes close friends, is dazzled by wealth, and uses this book to proselytize. Nothing rings true. Each character is a composite of handsome men and beautiful women. There’s no focus, no point. I’ll finish listening, to learn when she was deported. There are many books on Arab culture, Muslim cultures, and politics in the Middle East that are worth reading. This is not one of them.
    • 3/5
      Something in the title should have said it all: "a female doctor's journey..." is not exactly an artful use of language. In fact, that kind of descriptor almost sounds clinical in a most unattractive sense. So it is not all that surprising that at the end of this read I am left with a dry, sort of anesthetic feel for the text. And the disappointment in that sentiment is that I was drawn in and engaged until the fragments just fell flat. This is a story that has all the components of offering up, not only substantial scholarship, but a riveting tale as well. An educated woman, born and raised in England, educated in the United States, being unmarried and choosing to live under the dictates of the veil to work in Saudi Arabia just prior to the events of September 11, 2001. If one is looking for a light read that just touches on the important topics of the day, this is an excellent choice. After reading the book, I am sure that Dr. Ahmed would be an excellent practitioner to care for others in her careful thoroughness. The author is clearly educated, and quite observant to those around her. I suppose this is where the story of Invisible Women fails most miserably for me. Dr. Ahmed is meticulous in describing the minutia of her work. She is specific in defining the presentation (including naming the brands of their clothing) of the people in her adopted Saudi Arabian home. The feelings she shared about her Hajj and elicited about the scenery were all palpable. Yet, when I reached the end of the book, I felt certain that I had read too many uses of the word "beautiful" to describe every woman that Dr. Ahmed saw unveiled. Rather than really getting into the experiences of the women she knew and herself in wearing the abbaya, the author seemed to gloss over its significance. There was so much to cover: the politics of the veil, the choice in wearing one, the return to 'freedom' and life without a veil, the gritty politics of working in a predominantly male community and being acutely aware of life outside of the religiously conservative policing of the Muttaween. These divergent components of the book seemed to overwhelm the passion and relationship to the story, Dr. Ahmed used several footnotes and the text is lost for all the scholarly referencing without any real substance.I can only guess that the failing here occurred because Dr. Ahmed was insecure in focusing a critical eye on those whom she grew to care for and even admire in her time in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, sharpening that critical eye to analyze one's own experiences, choices, and circumstances is a difficult and sometimes daunting task. To get to a successful place with all that the book tried to accomplish, Dr. Ahmed might have chosen to write a fictionalized account rather than reveal an alliegance to maintaining loyalties and relationships through the telling of this story. The premise of her tale has a lot of resonance at this point in history. The author had a rare and unique opportunity to expose her naivet? in taking an employment opportunity that had such significant challenges to her sense of self, her identity and the role of women in the world (not just the Middle East or the United States). Without turning that observant eye inward - to the self - and to the psyche - she missed an opening toward real understanding. And in the end, I fear Dr. Ahmed squandered a chance to make a significant challenge to the stereotype-ideas that plague the Muslim people. This could be a thrilling account of personal experience living under the rigid regime of the conservative Muslim community and the everydayness of life in an abbaya (veil) from the perspective of western eyes. And worse, the author bashfully apologizes for being a storyteller who, "failed to meet her task with justice" in the closing chapter. That just might say it all.
    • 3/5
      Dr. Ahmed, a British-born Muslim, takes a job in Saudi Arabia. For two years, she struggles with the extreme sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia she encounters there. Simultaneously, she has several intense religious experiences, and seeks to reconcile the two.
    • 4/5
      This was a fascinating book. An insider's view of Saudi Arabian culture, and the conflicts and strains of Saudi society, especially as it affects women. The author, because of her work as a physician in Saudi Arabia, came into contact with Saudi women (and men) from many walks of life. Especially interesting was her description of her pilgrimage to Mecca. The book would have benefitted from tighter editing, as language errors were a distraction.
    • 5/5
      The outline intrigued me. The delivery moved me. Doctor Ahmed's novel was the best non-fiction novel I have listened and/or read in 2021 because the characters' lives remained in my head.
    • 4/5
      A rare look behind the veil from a western-educated female Muslim doctor working in a Saudi hospital for two years.
    • 3/5
      Quanta Ahmed is a British-born Muslim woman who considers herself a New Yorker. She accepts a two-year position as an ICU physician in a Saudi Arabian hospital in 1999-2000. Her first task is to purchase an abbayah, the head-to-toe covering she will wear every time she steps outside her home or the hospital she works in. Despite the western educations of many of her colleagues, the sexism and religious extremism she experiences are shocking. As an American it's hard to comprehend a society where men won't look a woman in the eye or shake her hand. Women are not allowed to drive, be in the company of a man not their husbands, rent a hotel room, or travel outside the country without the consent of a male family member. Somehow despite the repression and disrespect, she is able to strengthen her Muslim faith. While the insight into such a different society was fascinating, I found it hard to understand how she could remain friends with those who revealed themselves not only as sexist, but also outspokenly racist.
    • 2/5
      You know, I really, really wanted to love this book. It starts with Dr. Ahmed treating a woman in a hospital in Saudi Arabia who is covered head to toe in traditional garb, with her son hovering in the background. I thought, Oh, wow, how exciting! What did she think about how women are treated in daily life? What other patients did she treat that were in similar circumstances, and what where her thoughts about them?" But you know, after that first insight into her new world, and a wonderful description about her trip over to Saudi Arabia and her initial settling in, the book fell into a set of unlinked vignettes about different incidents she lived and different people she encountered.

      The lead-up in the first few paragraphs of a chapter would start a story, then the rest of the pages would go into great detail about the social and political situation in Saudi Arabia, then the narrative would wrap up with her thoughts about it in the last paragraph or two. On the surface, this does sound like what I was wanting to get out of the book, doesn't it? But it felt especially disjointed - here we have a night in a restaurant with a group of colleagues that turns into a terrifying encounter with a group of the Mutawaeen, the authoritarian clerics-cum-police who harass men and women for any unorthodox behaviors or improper wearing of the abbayah, the traditional robed dress of women in Saudi Arabia (the chapter entitled "Wahabi Wrath," pp. 229-248). But the conversations sound contrived (I know, she's probably trying to recreate the scenes from that night), and after the dramatic raid on the restaurant by the Mutawaeen, Dr. Ahmed goes into such detail about the backstory of the Mutawaeen's rise to authoritarian power that the dramatic impact of the scene in the restaurant kind of fades into the background.

      In addition, the amount of space/pages she gives to her remarkable first journey to Mecca on her Hajj is almost excessive. I'm thrilled that she was able to go onto her religious pilgrimage - it really tied together the many threads of Islam for her and was an amazing spiritual and religious experience - just so overly detailed. I know, I'm probably being unfair to a brilliant doctor who took the time to note her phenomenal experiences in the home of Islam, but with a little more editing and structure, I think this book could have been a much better read.

      Perhaps the history and background of the current Saudi Arabian culture could have been the first third of the book, followed by the different vignettes? And to have some sense of a timeline - perhaps the chapter sequence is supposed to mean that first she met with the Saudi women who dance alone (Chapter 6), then she dealt with a father's grieving (Chapter 9), but the incidents/events do not have any tie-in to one another so I found no sense of continuity. But I will say, her observations of the people around her were top-notch and that is the area in which her book shines."
    • 3/5
      Dr. Ahmed's personal account of her time spent working in Saudi Arabia has a fascinating premise and a lot of potential. However, I was disappointed by her execution. The book begins well with a retelling of her decision to work in Saudi Arabia and her first impressions of professional and social life there. The writing is engaging, but often uneven. For someone who is often describing how shocked she is by what she sees as narrow-mindedness and prejudice among the men she works with, she herself betrays a lot of condescension and judgment toward some of the Saudi people, based purely on external first impressions. Quite early in the book, Dr. Ahmed takes a long detour to discuss her rediscovery of her religion by detailing her participation in the rites of the Hajj. This part of the content seemed at odds with the description on the book jacket, but I found the topic interesting; however, Dr. Ahmed's treatment of this subject was not consistent with the rest of the book. Whereas in other spheres of Saudi life, she viewed the local ways from a Western perspective and was very willing to question them, when it came to Islam, she quickly abandoned her relatively Westernized and secular approach to the religion and accepted the fundamentalist practices as the correct ones. She describes a scene during the Hajj in which several Saudi women are reprimanding her for her way of praying and giving her minute corrections, and how her initial confusion and annoyance gives way to gratitude for the women's willingness to teach her about the correct way of practicing her religion. I think many readers would have found a more nuanced treatment of Saudi Islam to be enlightening, but it seems that Dr. Ahmed, while rebelling against most of the social rules of Saudi society (which are based on fundamentalist Islam), fully accepted Saudi Islam itself. To me, it seemed rather illogical.As someone who enjoys words, I was often irritated by a kind of pretentious misuse of them in Dr. Ahmed's book. Obviously, Dr. Ahmed is highly educated in her professional field, but she constantly aims to use more sophisticated language than is in keeping with the rest of her narrative, and quite often does so awkwardly or incorrectly. There were many cases which I found jarring, and in flipping quickly through the pages, I found these: - "checked-in under anonymous names" (p. 263)- "Expatriates teemed the lobbies"- "I scrabbled to formulate a plan" (p. 271)This might not be so important to some readers, but what irked me about this misuse of language is that Qanta frequently emphasizes her high level of education and sophistication and contrasts it with those of many Saudis. Her imperfect command of written language belies her portrayal of herself and makes me mistrust the truthfulness of other aspects of her book.
    • 5/5
      This is an autobiography of Dr Ahmed. She has a two year stint as a doctor in ICU in Riyadh. She is a Muslim but isn't used to the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. The women here in Saudi Arabia is somewhat repressed. Women cannot do anything. She was born in Pakistan and raised in England and does a residency in the US. An excellent read.
    • 5/5
      Once I started reading this book I couldn't stop. I was totally facinated with the pre 9-11 look at what an American Musilum doctor felt and witnessed as she spent two years in Saudi Arabia.

      Before Dr. Ahmed visited Saudi she thought she would easily fit into the Musilum lifestyle of Saudi Arbia. She had no idea what she was going to face during her time in Saudi.

      If you want greater insight into both the Musilum relegion and the Saudi woman's world, I would recommend this book. I gave it five stars for content. It is an excellent story to read.
    • 3/5
      This memoir of a British/Pakistani female doctor who spends two years working in Saudi Arabia was an interesting look at life in a bizarre culture, horribly restrictive to woman and even unkind to the men who live in its grip. I felt that the author could have been more concise in talking of her personal social relationships. But this was a revealing look at how a Western Muslim woman found a way to exist (thankfully temporarily) in a extremely fundamentalist world.
    • 4/5
      The journey of a western-trained Muslim woman to learn more about and connect with her religion through her work in a hospital compound in Saudi Arabia.
    • 4/5
      This book was received from LibraryThing under the Early Reviewers program. The story begins with Qanta Ahmed, a British-born physician who has spent several years in New York training in her field. When she is denied an extension of her American visa, Ahmed accepts a two year temporary position in a royal hospital in Saudi Arabia. Even though Ahmed was raised in the Muslim religion by her Pakistani parents, she is not prepared for the world of repression that women must live under in Saudi. Right from the start, she must dress in a head-to-toe black shroud (abbayah) and be escorted from the airport by a male chaperone. She is exposed to the authority of the religious police (mutawaeen), the extreme lifestyles of the Saudi women and men, the separation of men and women in this culture. Reading about her hajj or her pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Muslim is obligated to do at least once, was an eye opening adventure for me. I continued to follow online each of the places she visited and viewed photos of Muslim participants circling the famous Ka’aba. I understood why she was draw closer to her faith during her stay in the Kingdom.As 9/11 takes place when Ahmed is in Saudi, she is shocked into the realization that her fellow colleagues are overjoyed about this tragedy and learns that maybe some Saudis are responsible. Qanta was further distraught when colleagues she considers her friends make vicious anti-Semitic comments about Jews killed in the Twin Towers. She learns that even though some of her fellow medical associates were trained by Jewish doctors, they still consider the rest of the Jewish race as vile and hate their (Israel’s) handling of Palestinians.This book appealed to me because the author was honest and fore right in expressing her feelings about the unfamiliar life she was forced to live during her two years in Saudi Arabia. Her pilgrimage to Mecca was the most interesting section of the narrative. As she states in the afterword, many of the rules for women have been eased under the new King.
    • 3/5
      Good concept - treating female patients in Saudi Arabia -- bad execution. Instead of focusing on the difficulties of practicing western medicine in a fundamentalist culture, Ahmed spends way too much time describing her journey of self-discovery, which includes over 100 pages (OMG!) devoted to her own Hajj. She comes across as naive, surprised at the restrictions women face, and strangely sympathetic to the rampant misogyny despite her Western upbringing. There's even a sense of nostalgia at not having lived the repressed life of a Saudi woman but she offers no insight into this inner conflict.
    • 5/5
      Thank you, Ms. Ahmed for writing this book. Quanta Ahmed describes in full honesty her life as a physician in Saudi Arabia. She sways between her love for Islam, the women who befriend her and her revulsion at the racism, female oppression, Anti-Semitism, and religious fanaticism which inflicts Saudi Arabia. My mother, a Jewish refugee from an Arab country often described to me the hardships and fears of being a woman and a Jew in an Arab country, yet that was 60 years ago. Realizing that this is happening today only confirms how much has not changed and that is in whole Arab world. Quanta states on many occasions, that her experiences are with the higher echelon of Saudi society. Unlike much of the media in the West, she does not give any excuses for the rampant Anti-Semitism among Moslems and the educated medical elite who on many occasions got trained by Jewish doctors in the U.S.( a fact that I have known for quite a while). Ms. Ahmed ends her book on an optimistic note that things are changing for the better for women and in general. Only time will tell.
    • 4/5
      A British physician training in the U.S. finds out that her visa will not be renewed. Because of her Muslim background, she decides to go to Saudi Arabia for a couple of years and experience life in that country. As a liberal Muslim and an independent, highly educated woman, she struggles with the severe restrictions placed on women in the Kingdom. Not permitted to drive, she must depend on male drivers to take her everywhere. She must be fully covered in public. She is not permitted to go out unchaperoned and risks arrest by the "Virtue Police" at mixed gender parties, even when they are professional in nature. The prose is intense and detailed, highlighting her discomfort at submitting to these rules, finding ways to rein in her natural tendency to argue and looking for the positive whenever possible. A highlight in the book is her trip to Mecca during the Hajj, an experience which left her more deeply bound to her Muslim faith in spite of the difficulties and inconsistencies in the people around her. She struggles with racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism that she finds even in her highly educated friends. Because of her own educational background, most of the people she describes in detail are from the wealthy social class and she highlights the restrictions that even they face under Saudi rule. While she does address poverty and class distinctions, it is a minor part of the book. She also spends a lot of the book describing the expensive, brand-name clothing and accessories worn by these wealthy people. These are details I would never have noticed, but it does provide an interesting contrast between the materialism of these people and the spirituality that the government is trying to impose through the implementation of their version of Islamic Law. Overall, I found it a fascinating look into a culture I would never otherwise experience. I felt I was right there with her through everything. A captivating read.
    • 4/5
      I've had this book for ages but since it was a PDF I found it really difficult to read on the computer, I finally was able to borrow an ereader which was way better. I found the story intriging but at times difficult to follow as the writer seem to jump around and I often had difficulty keeping track of who was who. She often contradicted herself in the same chapetr usually having to do with the amount of freedom the Suadi male has. It's definitely worth a read if your interested in finding out how women are treated and see themselves in ther Saudi Kingdom.
    • 3/5
      I received this book two years ago through Early Reviewers, but didn't read it till now, partially because of issues with the e-book format, and partially because I thought it would be drier, more reportorial or academic. It is in fact a very personal memoir by a Muslim woman, a Pakistani-born, American-trained female physician, about her two-year stay in Saudi Arabia. It was not dry; in fact, once I started reading it I was quite entranced.The book gives a remarkable portrait of a relatively naive woman--naive in the sense that she did practically no homework on the country before moving there--encountering the limits that state-sponsored, fanatical religious observance put on her life. As a Muslim, she assumed she would fit in to a Muslim country, but instead found it to be a very foreign world, indeed.As fascinating as I found her tale, the book has drawbacks that better editing could have prevented. She does not tell us enough at the beginning of the book who she is, nor provide a time frame for her reminisces. I knew she was a doctor, and that her American visa was not renewed when she expected it to be, but only in later chapters could I piece together that she was a Pakistani British citizen. She has the same problem presenting the time frame; it is the late nineties, pre-9/11, a salient fact that is not explained early enough in her narrative. She presents her story informally in a series of portraits of the women and men she meets, both Saudi and ex-pats, who are coping with the unusual restrictions of life in Riyadh. Most movingly, she describes also her deepening understanding of her own religious heritage, especially during her impulsively-taken Hajj pilgrimage.Near the end of the book she tells of her struggles as a Westernized woman, a former resident of New York City, during the 9/11 attacks. As with so many other experiences of her experiences in the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], much of what she thought she knew about the Saudis and her co-religionists from other nations fell away.I would recommend the book, even with its flaws, as a compelling portrait of a world few foreigners can ever penetrate.
    • 3/5
      In the Land of Invisible Women, by Qanta A. Ahmed. This book left me with ambiguous feelings. On the one hand, it is a lively and informed description of life in Saudi Arabia, seen through the eyes of a woman who is both a Westerner (by education) and a Muslim. This unique perspective allows the reader to travel with her in a country that seems both modern and archaic, and to understand better both the manifestations of this situation and the reasons behind it – come to mind the explanations about the recent history of the country, and the mutations in the Saudi way of life. In the same vein, the contrast between her understanding of her faith, and the way it is understood and applied in this country, is also interesting, and will probably help Westerners to understand better that this religion is far less monolithic than it may seem from afar. On the other hand, some of the characterisations seemed to me, if not quite unidimensional, at least marked by such an obvious goodwill that they became less realistic. Does this aspect indicate a kind of self censure – a misguided attempt to compensate for the more critical aspects of her description, perhaps? If that's the case, there was no need: the construction of the narrative, the standpoint of the narrator itself, and her empathetic perspective, provided by themselves balance enough between the different aspects of the book.
    • 4/5
      In the Land of Invisible Women By Qanta A. Ahmed, M.D. Dr. Ahmed is denied a renewal of her US visa where she has studied an dpracticed medicine fo rthe past few years. Of Pakistani descent and raised in England, Qanta is quite the woman of the world. This memoir is written about her life at 31, when she accepts an opportunity to work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The facility is high tech, many of the physicians are U.S. trained and she is looking forward to the exciting adventure of working in this part of the world. Dr. Ahmed is pleased, surprised, apalled and shocked by the many diversities she discovers in this land where one side of the road you may see a camel and the next moment a porsche zooms on by! She rediscovers her muslim identity and makes a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a once in a lifetime dream. She makes many friends from around the world and learns to work in this extreme environment. In the hospital she is intelligient, outspoken, confident physician saving lives and in the streets she must be covered head to toe and watch very carefully what she says, whom she is with and where she goes. The differences of many worlds clashing together is both a learning process and frustrating experience. Excellent memoir and insight into another country, another world and a brilliant young womans mind.
    • 3/5
      This book is very uneven and would benefit from some serious editorial attention. The style sometimes attempts self-consciously to be 'literary', and even allowing for the fact it is aimed at the American market, there are some strange turns of phrase employed. The constant references to designer labels and premium brands are a lazy form of description and assume a common interest in high-ticket price consumerism.These concerns aside, Ahmed gives a surprisingly vivid and accessible glimpse of what life in Saudi Arabia was like at the end of the 20th century and in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. While the book will appeal more to women than men, it seems clear that the only way for a Westerner to begin to understand Saudi culture is through the eyes and experiences of women. At its best, the book portrays warm and engaging characters who are well rounded and frequently betray any stereotypes that might be assumed by the reader.The book contains a thorough if personal critique of Islam from the perspective of one of its adherents, and does much to encourage an understanding of moderate Islam. The author's own religious experience brings an emotional and spiritual depth to her faith which is challenging to those of us who tend to see Islam as a rather dry and legalistic religion.One hopes that this book will encourage Westerners of whatever religious background to engage with their Muslim neighbours and colleagues, and that greater understanding and acceptance will result on both sides.Despite the reservations I have about some aspects of this book, I would recommend everyone to read it so they can appreciate that Islam comprises a wide range of beliefs and practices, most of which are moderate, compassionate and inculcate values many of us share.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as an early reviewer pdf file and I read it while ill at a medical conference in Chicago last year. I should have reviewed it then, because it made a very strong impression on me. Far from being the expected scathing commentary about the human rights abuses of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ahmed's book reads like the diary of an earnestly optimistic young woman who is struggling to maintain equilibrium in very different environment. Her comments often reminded me of a dear friend who, after an ominous visit from the FBI, told me that one of the agents had very masculine hands. Dr. Ahmed, like that friend, does not seem to view the people with the same world weary cynicism that the rest of us have acquired. As a result, she sees things that we would miss. Her experience as a visiting female doctor in Saudi Arabia is fairly unique and well worth writing about, but her personal viewpoint, as an individual who sees potential and goodness where others do not, is what makes this book worth reading.One minor thing that confused me, however, was her unerring ability to tell what brand of clothing people were wearing. Outside of a page six reporter, I am not sure that I have met anyone, particularly physicians, who can actually do this as consistently as she did in this book. This occasionally led to amusing mental images of a young doctor appearing at social gatherings with a reporter's notepad asking everyone, red carpet style, who they are wearing.