A Border Passage: From Cairo to America--A Woman's Journey

AS SHE JOURNEYS ACROSS CULTURES, AN EGYPTIAN WOMAN STRUGGLES TO DEFINE HERSELF

In language that vividly evokes the lush summers of Cairo and the stark beauty of the Arabian Desert, Leila Ahmed tells the story of her life. This moving memoir begins with her Egyptian childhood amid the rich tradition of Islamic women, and ends with her longing to understand and to come to terms with her own identity as a feminist living in America. Growing up in Cairo in the 1940s and 1950s. Ahmed witnessed some of the major transformations of this century: the end of British colonialism, the creation of Israel, the rise of Arab nationalism under Nasser, and the breakdown of Egypt's once multireligious society. Through the turmoil, she searches to define herself -- and to understand how the world defines her -- as a woman, a Muslim, an Egyptian, and an Arab. She poignantly reflects upon issues of language, race, and nationality while unveiling the hidden and often misunderstood world of women's Islam.