Guests of the Sheik - An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

Bought at Powell's in June. Started 7/5/08 finished 7/13/08. I read most of this while in SD for Grandma Schuldt's funeral. I liked this book for the honest light it cast on the lives of women in Iraq 50 years ago. I wonder if anything has changed since this was written? It takes place in a small, secluded village outside of Baghdad. The most interesting thing was the realization by the author that her relationship w/her husband, the typical American marriage, appears to Iraqi women as one of loneliness.

A wonderful description of life in an Iraqi village.

In 1956 Elizabeth Warnock Fernea accompanied her husband, who was doing postgraduate work in anthropology, to the village of El Nahra, Iraq. For nearly two years, they lived as guests of Sheik Hamid Abdul Emir El Hussein. Elizabeth donned the abayah and attempted to integrate with the women of the village. Her Arabic was not very good and her hosts were naturally reluctant to welcome an American Christian. They assumed she was lazy, retarded and that she didn’t know how to cook. As her knowledge of the language and customs improved she came to be accepted as a member of the village and developed a mutual love and respect for the women of El Nahra.

I read this as a freshman in college and it has never been more relevant. It is an ethnography of the women of an Iraqi village named El Nahra. At the time it was written, the author was not an anthropologist but the wife of one of the men in the village. In fact, she was a newlywed!

I wish I knew where my copy of this book was. I'd like to read it again.

'The Guest of the Sheik' is the story of the author's two year stay in a conservative Iraqi village in the 1950s.

Ms. Fernea's account is, due to the conservatism of the village, almost entirely the story of the women of the village - women that Ms. Fernea brings to life. A story of a journey of acceptance and a great look into a life very foreign to many. Well worth reading.

I've recommended this book to tons of people. Warnock's book was a text for a modern Middle East class I took a few years ago. It is a classic and fascinating. After reading this book I wanted to read everying by Warnock that I could find.

An amazing story of a Western woman's journey into Iraqi society a half century ago. An excellent prelude to Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez

Positively outstanding! I felt like I was right there with "Bee Ja". I actually cried at the end and hated that the story was over. ;)