“A big-hearted examination of the extreme contradictions in a society very different—yet not so different—from our own.”
- Kirkus Reviews
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
by Dr. Qanta A. Ahmed
To read the rest of the starred Kirkus Review for In the Land of Invisible Women, visit our blog.
View Qanta Ahmed on Voice of America.
Hear Qanta Ahmed on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show
Hear Qanta Ahmed on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Here and Now"
Dr. Qanta Ahmed on CNN’s Newsroom PM with Rick Sanchez
MORE PRAISE FOR IN THE LAND OF INVISIBLE WOMEN
"This memoir is a journey into a complex world readers will find fascinating and at times repugnant… [an] intimate introduction to a world most readers will never know."
Publishers Weekly (June 2, 2008)
“Whether or not a reader is familiar with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Qanta Ahmed’s debut memoir is a mesmerizing read… [her] portrayal of Saudi Arabia during her two years there is one of both fondness and frustration, and a fascinating one at that.”
ForeWord Magazine (July 1, 2008)
“In this stunningly written book, a Western trained Muslim doctor brings alive what it means for a woman to live in the Saudi Kingdom. I’ve rarely experienced so vividly the shunning and shaming, racism and anti-Semitism, but the surprise is how Dr. Ahmed also finds tenderness at the tattered edges of extremism, and a life-changing pilgrimage back to her Muslim faith.”
Gail Sheehy, bestselling author of The Silent Passage
The decisions that change your life are often the most impulsive ones.
When unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a British born Muslim woman, made the decision to spend two years working in one of the finest hospitals in the world, located in Riyadh. Her first non-fiction book, In the Land of Invisible Women, (Sept 2, 2008) is a memoir that recounts her startling experiences while practicing medicine in the Saudi Kingdom. Fascinating and revelatory, Qanta provides a telling picture of what life is truly like in the Saudi Kingdom, from a unique perspective. She describes:
- How hospital patients reportedly clapped when the planes slammed into the twin towers on 9/11
- How men and women find marriage partners in a society that allows no dating and physical contact, and where they flee to have affairs
- How Saudi women who are supported by advanced thinking parents and who must wear abbayas with their bodies fully encased are able to defy the Saudi's oppressive rules and mores to become physicians
- How she worked side-by-side with Wahabi scholars and physicians who seemed to shun her even in clinical contact
- Why the religious police are so threatening and dangerous
- How a father grieves
- As well as encounters with sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, sycophancy
And she evokes, too, the moments where she finds tenderness and beauty when she would least expect it. And finally, she goes on a Hajj, a journey to Mecca with 2.5 million other Muslims, a privilege required by every able-bodied Muslim in his or her lifetime. For her, it becomes a life-changing moment that inspires and sanctifies her commitment to the Muslim faith.
Although Qanta now lives in the U.S., she is still very much in touch with that world.
Author Bio:
 Dr. Qanta Ahmed (MD, FCCP, FAASM) is the author of In the Land of
Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom. She
is an attending physician based in the Division of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical
Care Medicine at
Winthrop
University
Hospital in
Mineola,
New York, and a fellow of the
American
College of Chest Physicians and the
American
Academy of Sleep Medicine. She now
practices sleep medicine exclusively in Garden City,
Long
Island. Previously, she has practiced in the National Health Service
in the
United Kingdom, in the
National Guard Health Affairs in the
Kingdom of
Saudi
Arabia and in the Medical University of South Carolina in
Charleston, SC.
Dr. Ahmed is a 2010 Templeton-Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion at the
University of Cambridge, England, and a Honorary
Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in the School of Public
Health. She is the first Muslim woman ever to be selected
and the first physician to be invited in this program for journalists. The
fellowship seeks to ignite public discourse on the nexus of matters scientific
and religious. Dr. Ahmed also writes a regular column on The Huffington
Post.
Photo by Jack Alterman.
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