In language that vividly evokes the lush summers of Cairo and the stark beauty of the Arabian desert, Leila Ahmed tells a moving tale of her Egypti...
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reviews
Sep 30, 2011
Jacki
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A Border Passage is a personal memoir of Ahmed's childhood in Cairo, her academic life in England, and her professional life in America. She weaves a beautifual story of the impact of imperialism and the Eygptian revolutions on her life and the life of her family. She struggles with racism when there was no such word. She brings the reader to a place of contemplation as they begin to see the world from a non-Western point of view.
Ahmed is a skilled writer, able to a story that is More...
Ahmed is a skilled writer, able to a story that is More...
Sep 20, 2010
We started this interesting book in our reading group but I got caught up in too much else and, alas, it got laid by the wayside as so many books before it and since have done. It was a really interesting memoir about growing up in Egypt and coming, ultimately, to the west where freedoms for women are a given as opposed to an unthinkable. And all the fascinations and internal and ideological as well as political contradictions this created for Leila. It is a really interesting read... Fortunatel
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May 13, 2011
Jeanette
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The author was born & raised in Egypt. Her family was wealthy & educated. Her father was an engineeer. Of course as a Muslim, she grew up mostly in the company of the women of her family. This was a required reading in one of Olivia's classes at OU. It is excellent in that it helped me understand the development of Egypt politically and culturally, the essence of the Arabic language, what it is to be an Arab, how the life of Muslim women changed through the years, and it helped me to develo
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Mar 22, 2009
Nancy
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I got this book for Christmas - my husband picked it out all by his onesie! - and I hoped for better things than Ahmad delivered. This is a woman who has led an intriguing life...but she writes in a style that is at once ornate and tedious. I got the impression that she thinks of her life as "a woman's journey", and she writes about that; but I wanted to know about Leila, about who she was and is, and she is oddly careful to hide all that. This is a memoir that reads like a sociolog
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Sep 29, 2011
Phạm
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1 among a few interesting passages I found so far:
"What was passed on, besides the general basic beliefs and moral ethos of Islam, which are also those of its sister monotheisms, was a way of being in the world. A way of holding oneself in the world - in relation to God, to existence, to other human beings. THis the women passed on to us most of all through how they were and by their being and presence, by the way they were in the world, conveying their beliefs, ways, thoughts, More...
"What was passed on, besides the general basic beliefs and moral ethos of Islam, which are also those of its sister monotheisms, was a way of being in the world. A way of holding oneself in the world - in relation to God, to existence, to other human beings. THis the women passed on to us most of all through how they were and by their being and presence, by the way they were in the world, conveying their beliefs, ways, thoughts, More...
May 11, 2009
Gina
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This book I just read for last months DOA book club. It was ok, its more of a memoir of Leila Ahmeds life growing up in Egypt at the time of British control and then the rule of Nasser. She is Muslim but not a practicing Muslim, that is she does not state anything negative about Islam in general as she really does not know much about her Islam. Its also of her coming to terms with her relationship with towards her mother.
Jun 20, 2009
Sarah
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I first heard of Ahmed's autobiography from an interview she did with Krista Tippet for Speaking of Faith. I was intrigued by her description of the harem in that interview -- which resonated -- but was unprepared for the copious amounts of history, Egyptian specifically and Middle Eastern generally. All along, I questioned what one had to do with the other -- which is only resolved in the last chapter.
Jun 26, 2011
Susan
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This was very interesting, both a memoir of a girlhood in Cairo in the 40s and 50s and a brief history of modern Egypt and an examination of the place of women in Islam. I enjoyed the first part of the book about Leila Ahmed's childhood and youth the most. Some of the second half was a little dull. Parts of it reminded me of Penelope Lively's memoir of growing up in Cairo, "Oleander, Jacaranda", that I really liked.
Feb 01, 2009
Tiffany
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Absolutely outstanding memoir written by a thoughtful scholar of Islamic Women's studies. Ahmed weaves her memories of growing up in post-revolutionary Cairo with historical analyses of Egypt, Islam, women, Arab Nationalism, and identity issues. It's rare to find such a scholarly, thoughtful meditation on one's own personal history. I'm not sure I agree with everything she says, but her analyses are thought-provoking without being pedantic.
Nov 24, 2008
Lena
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A fascinating feminist perspective of modern Egyptian history and how the rise of Arab nationalism affected individual lives. A great history lesson and memoir of a woman searching the define herself as Muslim, female, immigrant, etc. This book strongly influenced my perceptions of current events involving this region of the world.
Jan 10, 2009
Chris
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Heard the author interviewed on Fresh Air. Stunning portrait of life for a young woman of privileged class in a second-world country, finding her way through the turmoil of post-colonialism into a deeper understanding of herself and the world we all occupy. A memoir.
Apr 18, 2009
Miranda
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A fabulous read. Resonates with where I am at. I have strong socio-political views, I am on a journey of defining myself as "woman": remaining feminine, playing hard where necessary and being a black professional in the Gulf- very enlightening journey indeed
Jun 22, 2010
Jess
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I really enjoyed this book! If I could, I would give it 4.5 stars. I'm not posting my review here yet, as I will be reviewing it for The Broke and the Bookish.
Dec 09, 2007
Liz
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This book effectively addresses the complications that exist in the crossing of different borders and cultures. Ahmed takes the time to introduce you to the life she lived as a young girl in Cairo. She takes you through the political situations and problems that shaped what Cairo has developed into today. In addition, she addresses the complications that occur through her travel to America in all the racism that she met with as she tried to meld into the colonial European world. I found this boo
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Nov 15, 2009
sara
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read it for a book club...glad to have read it to get a unique perspective...but the author contradicts herself over and over...if this falls under "islam and feminism", it's quite pathetic...
Jul 02, 2008
Jillien
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I love autobiographies in general, but I especially loved this one. I really learned a lot about Egyptian history/politics, revealing a very tumultuous and transitory time in its history. (I especially found it interesting to learn about her father's position on the High Dam) Having lived in Cairo, reading about the earlier days of Egypt in this book was almost like reading about a fairytale dreamland- it was hard to believe Cairo (and Egypt) used to be SO different than what it is now. It can d
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Mar 18, 2011
Louette
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This is the memoir of an Egyptian feminist, part of the intelligentsia. It helped me to understand Egyptian society from the point of view of a privileged woman.
Feb 16, 2008
Melinda
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This is an intellectually stimulating and beautifully memoir. It reflects the formative moments of Leila Ahmed's life while simultaneously investigating questions of imperialism, culture, religion, identity, feminism, race, literacy, politics, literature, Egypt, and Arabness at a level exceptionally perceptive and thorough. Ahmed draws a complex portrait of her childhood in Egypt and experiences in British academia. Her critical eye and articulate voice combine to form a rich memoir, one which p
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Jul 20, 2007
Jennifer
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I read this for a book club. I really didn't know a lot about what's covered in this memoir--growing up in Egypt, the formation of Arab nationalism, what it's like to be a Muslim woman, what it's like to love aspects of the culture that has colonized you. One of the most interesting things about this book was described at the end when the author moves to the U.S. to be a women's studies professor, and oddly finds women's studies a very hostile environment to be in--a contradiction that I found
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Feb 24, 2011
Steven
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The prose is often beautiful, but this is just too much story for my sluggish attention span.
Feb 22, 2009
Eileen
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In this thoughtful memoir Ahmed reflects on multi-layered questions of identity in relation to gender, nation, and colonialism as well as family history, class, and schooling. The text is unsentimental and consistently intellectually engaging. To have a woman of Leila Ahmed intellectual stature (she is most recently professor of religion and women's studies at Harvard) reflect so beautifully on the intertwining of our most intimate identities and large historical and political forces is a gift
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Dec 16, 2009
Ahmed's memoir describes her transformation from a privilaged child in British colonial Egypt to an Americanized feminist academic. I haven't got this far, but this is the quote from the person that suggested it to me: "Especially compelling is her defense of Islam as an inherently feminist religion that male scholars have misinterpreted as patriarchal. A must-read for lovers of religious, cultural or women's studies."
Dec 16, 2009
Angela
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Leila Ahmed's tells the story of her childhood showing what she sees to be a real difference between the Islam the women in her family practiced and that which the men practiced. This story also helped me understand the Nasser era and colonialism in Egypt, what happened to the Jews who once lived there, and why so many people fled to the West.
Aug 26, 2008
Colleen
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Leila Ahmed is a beautiful writer. Her memoir is candid and successfully describes both the her viewpoint as a child and reflections on childhoon as an adult. It additionally, provides insight into women's Islam, women's roles in Egypt, and arab identity. I really like this book and would advise all to read it.
Apr 11, 2008
Tessa
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This is a fantastic autobiography by Ahmed about growing up female in Egypt after its independence from Britain, and then going West for her education and having to deal with two different cultures.
Dec 17, 2009
"we are so used to the idea of Egypt as 'Arab' that it seems unimaginable that Egyptians ever thought of themselves as anything else."
Aug 05, 2009
Julie
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I could have sworn I reviewed this book when I finished reading it. Apparently I was a fan.
Jan 03, 2008
Gabrielle
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overall a decent book. at times incredibly profound. worth reading.
