I have been interested in the Middle East for a long time (since I was 10 or 11) it started after September 11, I was facinated by the idea of war (i didn't know it still existed) I was also facinated by the culture and stories about the middle east.
I remember getting the newspaper just to see the picture that says war on terror or watching the news aobut it.
One of my favorite shows is the west wing. I remember the third season episode of "Enemies foriegn and Domestic." where CJ says:
"Outraged? I'm barely surprised. This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative. They're required to adhere to a dress code that would make a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape, and drug trafficking. They have no free press, no elected government, no political parties. And the Royal Family allows the Religious Police to
Its crazy how much we think we know a country by what we see and hear on TV.
but i learned a lot more about the middle east then just the negative that is shown on tv and newspaper.
In 2005 I had a penpal, a marine serving in Iraq. I would email him every week and he would send me pictures from Iraq. I loved getting the pictures from Iraq and seeing the things he saw everyday. When he returned he sent me a calendar from Hawaii as a thank you for writing him while he was there.
I loved reading books about the middle east. I've read alot of books I read Kite Runner, A thousand spledid suns, The burning veil, Girls of riyadh and many more.
In High School I took a humanities (which was a combination of Art, English 10 and World Civ) class and one of the things we learned was religions of the world, In 12th grade I took AP art history and I loved Islamic Art.
In college I took Middle Eastern Women Litature where we read 5 books written by Women authors and I enjoyed that class.
The five books we read were
1. Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
2. A Border Passage by Leila Ahmed
3. A Beggar at Damascus Gate by Yasmin Zahran
4.The Image, The Icon and The covenant by Sahar Khalifeh
5 Savushun (translated from the persian by M.R Ghanoonparvar)
I also read Memory in the Flesh by Ahlam Mosteghanemi (it was the book we were suppose to read instead of The Image, The Icon and The covenant but the bookstore ran out of copies so we chose a different book) and I read Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh because the professor told us about it so I wanted to read it.
We also did a presentation and I did mine with a friend on Music we compared old musicians like Umm Kulthum with the new hiphop/revolution music. (I watched a documentary on 2 young girls who would sneak out and would sing hip hop music but i don't remember whats it was called)
I also took this class in 2011 when the arab spring started we were reading a book about egypt and we would discuss what was happening in egypt compared to what was going on in the book.
That year I also took a Music of the Worlds class and I was very interested in Middle east music as well. I did my presentation on the UAE and the music there.
In fall 2011 I found a couple blogs that were very interesting the first one I found was http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/. Which led me to two more interesting blogs about foriegn women married to saudi men. They were http://americanbedu.com/ and http://taraummomar.blogspot.com/ (now FHWS)
Within the last year I also enjoyed reading Blue abaya. Under the abaya. and The Same Rainbows End.
I am hoping to take more classes that talk about the culture (music, food, religion, language, books, etc.) of the Middle East. Right now I am trying to learn Arabic.
Someday I would love to travel there and see the things I've heard and read about.
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