Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village [Paperback]

Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995

A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

There are 800 million Muslims in the world today, yet Islam is one of the world's least understood and appreciated religions. The culture of Islamic women and the mystery of a veiled society have endured any number of uninformed or hostile interpretations. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea spent the first two years of her marriage in the 1950s living in El Nahra, a small village in Southern Iraq, and her book is a personal narrative about life behind a veil in a community unaccustomed to Western women. She arrived speaking only a few words of Arabic and feeling dubious about her husband's expectation that she adapt completely to the segregated society in order to accommodate his anthropological study. When she left two years later she was an accepted and loved member of the village, inspired for a lifetime of work in Middle Eastern studies. The story of her life among the Iraqis is eye-opening, written with intellectual honesty as well as love and respect for a seemingly impenetrable society. Although the book was originally published in 1965, it surfaced again during the Gulf War in 1991 when many small villages were destroyed in Southern Iraq. This book gives readers a fuller sense of those communities and brings home the cost of war waged against civilians. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Rebecca Sullivan

From the Publisher

A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385014856
• ISBN-13: 978-0385014854
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > History > Middle East > Iraq

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 330 pages - read in 1 day, January 24, 2001

By 

Gregory L Dyas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village (Paperback)

This book, suggested to me by a professor, was absolutely engrossing. "BJ" Fernea is newly married and accompanying her anthropologist husband Bob from Chicago to the conservative shiite muslim village of El Nahra, where she spends about 1.5 years in the late 50's living, as the native women do, in purdah, veiled from head to foot and almost completely segregated from men. While her husband conducts his studies, BJ, to help her husband's work, involves herself in the daily lives of the women of El Nahra. There are lavish festivals, rampant poverty, marriages, illness, holy celebrations of mourning, enmities created and friendships formed while BJ finds her way through the minefield of social propriety, familial obligation and hard work that composes the lives of these women.

Educated as a journalist, Fernea describes her sojourn both eloquently and honestly. These people become absolutely real in your mind, and I must admit that I felt a lump rise in my throat at the end as her friends in the village ululated unseen their good wishes and mourning at her while leaving the town.

This is, despite the title, almost exclusively about the women of El Nahra, a very small town in the 50's near Diwaniya in southern Iraq. She sees, and therefore reports, little of the activities of men. This is not a general overview, but for what it is it remains a landmark.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased, educational, excellent, December 2, 2002

By 

"teneke" (Brighton, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village (Paperback)

Given the attention on the Middle East, and Iraq in particular, this book should be considered a 'must read.' I still find myself wondering what ended up becoming of the village that showed Elizabeth and Robert such hospitality and acceptance before Iraq became a dirty word to Americans. This book inspired me to locate more books written by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea and I anticipate equally enthusiastic reviews of her other open and honest accounts of life in Arab countries. She has had the opportunity to experience Middle Eastern society in a way so few of us could ever hope. I especially appreciate her objectivity and her ability to respect the way of life that so many people in the West automatically view as inferior. This book is truly a treasure for those open-minded enough to want to learn more about life in the Middle East.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unbiased, informative, and entertaining, March 28, 1999

By 

Melanie Prasol ([e-mail]) (Wellesley, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village (Paperback)

I recently read Guests of the Sheik for one of my classes. Not only did I find the book informative, but I was also so enthralled by it that I found myself neglecting other work. Many of the other books that I have read for my class I find to be cluttered with the author's prejudices. When Fernea to Iraq with her husband she was not a social anthropologist, like her husband. She did not have the base of over-analyzation that many "orientalists" write from. Her book is entirely observation without judgement. If you want to read about women's life in a veiled society, this is perfect. You'll be surprised at what you discover about this culture, which is so often portrayed as oppressive and backwards.