Essay Database

Leila Ahmed's memoir--of her childhood on "the remote edge of Cairo"; of young adulthood at Girton College, Cambridge; of adulthood in Abu Dhabi, leading to a career in women's studies in New England--is an arresting piece of work. It reconstructs the past and its effect on the present like a song, not linear but circular, with repetition and emphasis. Themes are referred to, then referenced in context, so we proceed not quite chronologically, but almost …

…Without modifying her stance or beliefs, Ahmed disarms her persecutors and questions her own recollections, her own summations. This is what a good memoir does: It prods us to examine our lives against the life being examined. Ahmed encourages the life of the mind, but doesn't tell us about her arrival in America to teach women's studies. One hopes that she will in a future volume, for it too will be a tale to relish.