It's Not What You Think: An American Woman in Saudi Arabia - Hardcover

by Sabeeha Rehman (Author)

From the author of Threading My Prayer Rug, an eye-opening view of life in Saudi Arabia.
It's Not What You Think is a wry, incisive account of working in Saudi Arabia that offers insight into that insular patriarchal society, what is so attractive to expatriates living there, and what was contradictory or confining about it for a naturalized American who is a woman and a Muslim. A hospital executive in New Jersey, Sabeeha relocated with her oncologist husband to Riyadh, the most conservative city in the country, intending to remain two years. They ended up staying for six. Her book takes the reader on a journey of discovery that mirrors her own.

Offered an influential position at Riyadh's most prestigious hospital, she first has to obtain her husband's permission to work. In public spaces, she quickly encounters the morality police but also learns the freedom of the abaya. Salesmen staff the lingerie department. Women in Riyadh do not work in public places, yet they hold positions of authority within corporate culture; and outside Riyadh, she discovers that women-owned-and-operated businesses flourish, and Bedouin women could drive in the desert decades before Riyadh's ban was relaxed. Through Sabeeha's eyes, we see how Saudi and Western expat cultures coexist within the boundaries of "don't ask, don't tell," how traditions define the identity of the Saudi nation, and how to discern what is "culturally appropriate" versus what is required legally. As she dons pilgrim's garb, we join her on the hajj, to discover the intensity and spiritual high of the devout.

Author Biography

Sabeeha Rehman is an author, blogger, and speaker on interfaith understanding. Her memoir Threading My Prayer Rug: One Woman's Journey from Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim was finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, named one of Booklist's Top Ten Religious and Spirituality Books and Top Ten Diverse Nonfiction Books, awarded honorable mention in the San Francisco Book Festival Awards, Spiritual Category, and was a United Methodist Women's Reading Program Selection. Sabeeha has given more than 250 talks in nearly a hundred cities at houses of worship, academic institutions, libraries, and community organizations, including the Chautauqua Institution. She is also the author, with Walter Ruby, of We Refuse to Be Enemies: How Muslims and Jews Can Make Peace, One Friendship at a Time, and has given more than eighty book talks nationwide and overseas. She is an op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and Baltimore Sun. She lives with her husband in New York City.