Border Passage: From Cairo to America- One Woman's Journey - Leila Ahmed

I read this book awhile ago but really enjoyed it so I thought I'd post it. It was really interesting to get insight on a culture and country that I know so little about- those being the Arab culture and Egypt. The memoir of the author, and Egyptian-American feminist and Women's Studies professor, is truly an opus of insight on discrimination by race, gender, religion, politics, and class and how our experiences and familial, cultural, religious, and educational environment shape our reality and our attitudes. This non-western, female perspective on colonialism, politics, religion, the rise of the Arab identity, and the attitudes of westerners towards non-western cultures is both shocking and humbling in its acuity and depth. It was truly wonderful to read such intelligent and well-thought out views on such a broad range of topics- a dense read that is at the same time so very engaging and readable.