Very interesting perspective from a Muslim female who was from Britain and medically trained in the United States. Qanta gave intricate details as to the lifestyle of those in the Saudi Kingdom and why certain customs are followed and adhered to. Many books speaking out about women and Saudi Arabia are written from an outsider view point that accentuates the negative, but Qanta, while still arguing against the apartheid between men and women in the middle east, shows some positive views,and writes about the other side of the males that is so rarely put in written form. I found the book, although very detailed at times, to be an interesting and educational book that was hard to put down.

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Working in medicine, I was excited to read about a US trained physicians experiences working in Saudi Arabia. The fact that the physician in question is a woman and a Muslim made me move this book to the top of the tbr pile. The book focuses less on medicine and more on the role of women in The Kingdom. While interesting at times, overall the book was loooong, and the dialogue stilted and artificial. I found myself struggling to push on to the conclusion. For me there were some worthwhile insights about the Arab culture, especially for an expat woman, but overall it was just too boring to give more than two stars.

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In the Land of Invisible Women is an inticing look at a sliver of Saudi Arabian life. When Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a British Muslim physician of Pakistani heritage who trained in the US, was unable to secure a visa to remain in New York, she signed up for a stint as an intensivist at the National Guard hospital in Riyadh. From the lounge waiting for her flight onwards, she begins to enter a very culturally different space which I wanted to explore with her.

However, the writing style didn't have enough of a narrative arc to fully achieve that effect. After the first few chapters describing her arrival, the rest were organized by topic, rather than chronologically. Several chapters and months into her stay came the first mention of her cat. A chunk in the middle describing Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and a potential love interest lent some continuity. Although Dr. Ahmed uses descriptive language, some medical lingo slips through (mesomorphic to describe the love interest, hypertensive to describe a good friend) and most events were painted in an extreme, and thus melodramatic, light.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading about the professional elite 'glitterati' circles she moved in, and the reactions to 9/11 towards the end of her two years (1999-2001) in Riyadh. She definitely made—and shared with readers—some inroads in understanding a culture to which I would have very little direct exposure, and well as her own religion. A recommended read.

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