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A review by lizdesole
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta Ahmed
3.0
I found this to be a very frustrating book. Either the author is conflating circumstances to create a "good" story or she is the most willfully uninformed person.
I can't understand how a well-educated woman could sign on to living in Saudi Arabia for 2 years and show up with no covering. How incredibly ignorant. She came from New York so she doesn't have the excuse of lack of access to proper attire. I could walk from my house in Brooklyn and get an abbaya!
She (supposedly) at the last minute decides she's been called by god to do a pilgramage to Mecca but doesn't even have a koran with her.
She complains about her cheap abbaya and is constantly panting over other womens' and I can't swallow that a doctor brought over from the West doesn't make enough money to afford a decent one.
She also claims not to follow fashion and branding, but the book almost reads like it was written by Bret Easton Ellis with all the brand descriptors of everything everyone else is wearing.
I also got sick sick of every woman being described as beautiful. I felt myself rolling my eyes for every new loving decription.
It's a real shame because she does spend quite a bit of time getting to know many different kinds of people while she is in Saudi Arabia. I know some of the time she is acting stupid to forward the story.I just wish she didn't come off as such an ignorant drama queen
I can't understand how a well-educated woman could sign on to living in Saudi Arabia for 2 years and show up with no covering. How incredibly ignorant. She came from New York so she doesn't have the excuse of lack of access to proper attire. I could walk from my house in Brooklyn and get an abbaya!
She (supposedly) at the last minute decides she's been called by god to do a pilgramage to Mecca but doesn't even have a koran with her.
She complains about her cheap abbaya and is constantly panting over other womens' and I can't swallow that a doctor brought over from the West doesn't make enough money to afford a decent one.
She also claims not to follow fashion and branding, but the book almost reads like it was written by Bret Easton Ellis with all the brand descriptors of everything everyone else is wearing.
I also got sick sick of every woman being described as beautiful. I felt myself rolling my eyes for every new loving decription.
It's a real shame because she does spend quite a bit of time getting to know many different kinds of people while she is in Saudi Arabia. I know some of the time she is acting stupid to forward the story.I just wish she didn't come off as such an ignorant drama queen