In the land of invisible women : a female doctor's journey in the Saudi Kingdom / Qanta A. Ahmed

Includes bibliographical references

The Bedouin bedside -- A time to leave America -- My new home, a military compound -- Abbayah shopping -- Invisible and safe -- Saudi women who dance alone -- Veiled doctors -- The lost boys of the kingdom -- A father's grieving -- An invitation to God -- The epicenter of Islam -- Into the light -- The child of God -- The million-man wheel -- Committing Haram -- Calling Doctora -- Daughters of the desert -- Next stop: absolution -- Prayer under the stars -- Between the devil and the Red Sea -- Mutawaeen: the men in brown -- Single Saudi male -- The calm before the storm -- Wahabi wrath -- Doctor Zhivago of Arabia -- Love in the kingdom -- Show me your marriage license! -- An eye for an eye -- Princes, polygamists, and paupers -- Divorce, Saudi-style -- The Saudi Divorcée -- Desperate housewives -- The making of a female Saudi surgeon -- The hot mamma -- The Gloria Steinem of Arabia -- Champion of children -- 9/11 in Saudi Arabia -- Final moments, final days -- Rugged glory -- Reading group guide.

A Western trained Muslim doctor brings alive what it means for a woman to live in the Saudi Kingdom. The decisions that change your life are often the most impulsiveones. Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong. What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom is a world apart, a land of unparralled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her, but also humor, honesty, loyalty and love. And for Qanta, more than anything, it is a land of opportunity. A place where she discovers what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women.