A Border Passage_ From Cairo to America – A Woman's Journey by Leila Ahmed — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists.pdf

13/11/13 A Border Passage: From Cairo to America A Woman's Journey by Leila Ahmed Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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

by Leila Ahmed

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 Egyptian childhood growing up in a

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 rating details 443 ratings 53 reviews



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rich tradition of Islamic women and describes how she eventually came to terms with her identity as a feminist living in America. As a young woman in Cairo in the 1940s and'50s, Ahmed witnessed some...more

Paperback, 336 pagesPublished June 5th 2000 by Penguin (Non-Classics) (first published 1999)

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Best Books About Islam & Muslims

55th out of 256 books 268 voters

Best Books by Muslim Women

11th out of 61 books 106 voters

Community Reviews

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Dec 10, 2012Manon rated it 2 of 5 starsYet another wealthy, Western-educated Arab woman who decides that her life story is interesting and valuable enough to be "the life story of the Middle Eastern Woman"! LeilaAhmed is a wonderful scholar and has made innumerable contributions to the field of Middle Eastern/Islamic gender studies, but this book is alas not one of them. Although it is

well-written, the subject is very boring. Ahmed gives us snippets of a half-remembered priveleged childhood that she couldn't wait to escape by movin...more



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Jul 24, 2013Suhaib rated it 5 of 5 stars

This entire memoir is like an impressionist painting. Every page was breathtaking, whether it was the memory of the author as a child, lying under a starlit Alexandria sky with hergrandmother on the 27th night of Ramadan, waiting for angels, or her many passages about her strained yet loving relationship with her mother. Leila Ahmed masterfully weaveshistory together with memory, and paints a picture of mid-20th century Egypt as a multilingual, religiously diverse nation unaffected by the tumu...more

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Sep 30, 2011Jacki rated it 4 of 5 starsA 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 placeof 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 intriguing and...more

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Apr 14, 2012Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars review of another edition

Shelves: biographies, historyI read this book in 2000, shortly after it appeared. I met Professor Ahmed at a conference (where she did NOT speak about her book) and found her a very engaging

presenter.

The book covers three aspects of her life: her childhood in pre-revolutionary Egypt (i.e. before 1953); her education in English; and thereafter.

Professor Ahmed, a relatively secularized and non-observant Muslim, has written extensively about women and their lives in the Middle East, as well as nascent feminism there.

I was enc...more

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Sep 20, 2010Sandy marked it as started-not-finishedShelves: reading-group-picks, egypt

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. Itwas 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...moreflaglike see review

May 13, 2011Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs

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 andculturally, 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 dev...more

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Mar 22, 2009Nancy rated it 1 of 5 starsI 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 sociology text...dull...moreflaglike see review

Aug 17, 2013Kristine Gift rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-13, middle-eastRealistically, I would rate this 3.5/5 rather than simply 3, were that an option. I was assigned this book for a class I took three years ago about the history of the modern Middle

East, but then it was removed from the syllabus before classes began. But at graduation, another professor gave me a new copy of this book, and I took it as a sign that I should

finally read Ahmed's book. In short, I'm glad I did; it was enlightening and interesting (especially the chapter(s?) about her college/grad s...more

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Jul 13, 2010Phm rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-some-parts-of-this



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 andpresence, by the way they were in the world, conveying their beliefs, ways, thoughts, and how we shoul...more

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May 17, 2012Rubayya rated it 5 of 5 starsThis book is really, really good. It starts a little slow and muddled but the speed at which it progresses is reflective of the author's sharpening of her outlook and identity. Reading

this book, I realized how similar the experience of growing up in a British colony, Egypt, is to growing up as an immigrant, minority, and Muslim in America. She vividly portrays

a conflicted sense of self with which I can identify strongly and resolves her sense of conflict in a way that is healing, even to me. T...moreflag1 like like see review

Aug 14, 2012Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't remember how I learned of this book, but it had been on my "to read" shelf for over a year. The book is a memoir of Leila Ahmed, an Egyptian author and feminist. Itdetails her life beginning with the British occupation through current times. The book gives a glimpse of life for foreign students (for this woman, it was in England), and sheds light

on Egypt's unique role in the Arab world. She also finishes with the feminist movement and her difficulty in relating this movement to a cultu...more

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May 11, 2009Gina rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 alsoof her coming to terms with her relationship with towards her mother.

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Jun 20, 2009Sarah rated it 3 of 5 starsI 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.

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Mar 04, 2013Mohammad rated it 1 of 5 stars

I literally could not finish the book. Literally. I tried really hard, especially since it was required for a class but I just couldn't. It was so bad. I didn't care whatsoever aboutAhmed's life and privilege. It really seems that she was alien in her own land, as she mentions herself. Luckily, she is now living in USA and away from her "homeland" where she

didn't seem to belong.

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Jun 26, 2011Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

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.flaglike see review

Feb 01, 2009Tiffany rated it 5 of 5 starsShelves: truly_outstanding

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.flaglike see review

Nov 24, 2008Lena rated it 5 of 5 starsShelves: memoir

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.

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Jan 10, 2009Chris rated it 4 of 5 starsHeard 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.

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May 15, 2012Maureen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had hoped for more of the author's personal in this book. I knew the history of the time pretty well before reading it and have read other memoirs of women growing up in

Egypt at the same time. For those reasons, I could have done with less of the Middle East history lessons.flaglike see review

Apr 18, 2009Miranda rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 wherenecessary and being a black professional in the Gulf- very enlightening journey indeed

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Oct 19, 2012Jen Appell rated it 3 of 5 starsShelves: booksluts-challenge

I tend to really enjoy memoirs and autobiographies, but I feel like I would have enjoyed this book if I had read it at my leisure. Having been pressured into reading half of it

within two days kinda builds a resentment toward the book. Besides that, I thought the book was interesting and it taught me a lot about different cultures. I'd recommend it topeople who enjoy memoirs and cross-cultural concepts.

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Jun 22, 2010Jess rated it 4 of 5 starsShelves: 2010, cs-spring-summer-challenge-2010

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.

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Dec 09, 2007Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 complicationsthat 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...more

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Nov 15, 2009sara rated it 2 of 5 starsread 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...

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Jul 02, 2008Jillien rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 likereading 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...more

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Oct 25, 2012Alice rated it 4 of 5 starsShelves: non-fiction, africa, middle-east, travel

The author is an academic, and it shows in her writing style. Sometimes she really went too far off into an academic discussion - but it was worth it. She explores ideas of Arab

identity vs. Egyptian identity, oral traditions vs. written Islam, women's culture vs. men's culture, and what it means to be a non-European living in the west. It's the bestdiscussion of the problem with traditional education and reliance on book learning that I've read. I had no idea that written Arabic was so differe...more

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Feb 15, 2013Jeremy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Leila Ahmed is a terrific writer, but I have the same problems with her memoir that I have with memoirs in general. Memoirs, in my opinion, only work as a part of some larger

context than one's self, and while Ahmed does better than most, she still gets bogged down in personal minutiae that bare little relevance to that context and, ultimately, bore theshit out of me. Her best work comes toward the end, when she really dug in to the point of her memoir: searching for her identity as a feminist...more

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Mar 18, 2011Louette rated it 4 of 5 starsThis 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.

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Feb 16, 2008Melinda rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: manyThis 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...more

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Jul 20, 2007Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who want to learn about Egypt or Islam

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 t...more

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About Leila Ahmed

Leila Ahmed (Arabic: ) is an Egyptian American professor of Women's Studies and Religion at the Harvard Divinity School. Prior to coming to Harvard, she wasprofessor of Womens Studies and Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of

Cambridge before moving to the United States to teach and writ...more

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A Border Passage_ From Cairo to America – A Woman's Journey by Leila Ahmed — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists.pdf