Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)

During the 1980s, Judith Caesar taught literature in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Her aptly titled book offers one woman's view of several political powder kegs that didn't make front page news and of the clash between Western and Middle Eastern customs. An open-minded nature and curiosity about the place of women in cultures that seem wildly restrictive to many Westerners helps Caesar deconstruct stereotypes on both sides of the border. The American television show Dallas, she notes, now in perpetual rerun in many countries, has become a gold mine of misinformation on Western women. Likewise, our squeamishness about arranged marriage belies some of the inside story shared by her students. One plans to land "a good temper man" by asking a suitor's sister to reveal his true temperament. And if he doesn't have a sister? "Then don't marry him," comes the swift reply. "He has never learned about women."