Reviews

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

necessitteem's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed reading the perspective of the author. While she was very wordy throughout most of the book, she did reveal her experiences while in Saudi Arabia. Through the lense of someone who is both a feminist and a Muslim, she spoke of how women were viewed in the country during her time there. Overall I enjoyed reading her story and I’d like to read more books about the Middle East in general.

olivia_goode's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

3.75

I enjoyed this book. As an American it was fascinating to read about a new culture, one which inspires many conflicting emotions. 

lizlogan's review against another edition

4.0

I thought the perspective of this book was fascinating, a foreign Muslim looking in on a deeply Islamic culture. I especially enjoyed the chapters about her Hajj. The beauty she discovered in the whole thing was fascinating and rather enlightening because as a person of a western culture who has grown up in a place with very little Middle Eastern (or even Islamic) influence, but plenty of Christian influence, to hear about a religious epiphany from a completely different POV.

_ellie_annah_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

charley0796's review

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Islam gave women inheritance rights and property rights and the rights to divorce and to choose a marriage partner.

An informative, reflective memoir of a female Muslim’s experience being in an extremist land, with a back drop of being a doctor. It’s not medical literature.

This book Challenged Islamic stereotypes and bias I had, helping sift the extremism from truth. I was so surprised to learn the undercurrent of equality in the religion and how women have so many more rights than in other religions. It was shocking to learn how Islam has been twisted by extremists and how Saudi Arabia is trying to fight against this when half the population still doesn’t have the right to. 

Dr Ahmed is not an unbiased author. The first quarter of the book was hard to read as her despise for Saudi Arabia and her less accepting male colleagues coated the pages. This did lessen as she developed during her stay, but perhaps was made through by the bitterness she felt towards her former friends and colleagues who showed disgusting anti-semitism after 9/11. 

I was also shocked to read how little Dr Ahmed new about her religion, how her colleagues seemed to have to constantly educate her. It shows how much she had been distanced by being in the western world. I loved seeing this develop as she told her story of her Hajj - one of my favourite parts of the book as I love hearing about different cultures. 

I have however, marked the book down for simply being too long. Dr Ahmed is an eloquent author, but I struggled through seemingly identical descriptions of ‘beautiful’ women where everyone was ‘beautiful’. I think this should have been cut significantly and made the book about 350 pages, which is much more manageable than the 500 pages it is currently. 
 I was also not a fan of the first quarter of the chapter. I wanted to hear more about life in Saudi Arabia and perhaps more medical chapters and stories than the copy and paste conversations with various women about their marriages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Antisemitism

Minor: Domestic abuse

cozycourt's review against another edition

4.0

A great study into the nature of Saudi culture. The part that talks about 9/11 was fascinating and slightly horrifying.

dei2dei's review against another edition

2.0

I'm not sure entirely what I was expecting, but I found myself disappointed with this. I think I had higher expectations - both for the writing and for the material to be covered (really, give me more details on practicing medicine! The hospital almost seemed to be a backdrop, and her nature as a doctor secondary to everything else). It's not a bad book by any means, but there's so much more that could have been covered and wasn't; it leaves me disappointed.

caterwaul's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

Certainly an interesting read. The first quarter-ish of the book is a bit rough as the author outlines her initial biases against living and working in Saudi Arabia. However, it does seem to do a decent job of showing a wide variety of people's beliefs and lives, plus the author's views do evolve over the course of the book. I don't think the author can fully escape her Western bias, but I do think she gave a reasonably fair depiction of the circumstances she was working in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Antisemitism

luzbella's review against another edition

4.0

This book was an interesting, revealing look at the social and medical world inside Saudi Arabia, with a strong focus on women's lives and issues. It would have benefited from some strong editing, as there were places where characters were introduced fully after stories about them had already taken place. Overall, though, it was an engrossing read

blueoranges's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75