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Fatima and Her Sisters: A Fascinating View of the Vanished and Romantic World of Arab Women in the Era of the Veil
Fatima and Her Sisters A Fascinating View of the Vanished and Romantic World of Arab Women in the Era of the Veil Author:Dorothy Van Ess This book provides an intimate description of Muslim women's lives in Basrah during the early part of the Twentieth Century. Van Ess first went to Basrah in 1909 to teach in a girl's school there, and stayed for over 50 years. During that time, she made many friends amongst the women in the city. She describes aspects of the lives of some of tho... more »se women in this book. Topics covered include: marriage, birth and death customs, married life, polygamy and divorce, family relationships, religion and folk beliefs, housekeeping, and societal changes through the mid-1950s. The book is illustrated with a short section of black-and-white photographic plates.
The book provides good documentation of the everyday details of women's lives of the period. Van Ess had much greater opportunities to get to know women than either male writers or women travelers, and this is reflected in her detailed descriptions of family customs.« less