In the 1950’s, a newly married American women named Elizabeth Warnock Fernea accompanied her new husband for a two year stay in the small rural village of El Nahra located in Southern Iraq. This book encapsulates her different experiences of the town social agenda, while her husband an anthropologist gathers data in the community. Her adjustment into her new surroundings was quite difficult, simply because she lived in a mud hut that had no indoor plumbing for running water and toilets, she didn’t know the language all that well, and was not accustomed to the different local ways of life.By accepting the different custom of dressing in the all black veils like the women in the harem, which fits in with the beliefs of the local conservative Islamic community, she was able to then interact with the different women located in town. Besides these women of the town and her husband she was not to speak to another male, because women’s interaction with men is strictly forbidden. There was one exception to this idea for Elizabeth, a servant named Mohammad that was provided by the Sheik to help deal with the different Arabic ways. It is here in Nahra, a known polygamous society, where there exists no social communication between the different sexes and the actions of the women are watched and maintained with great detail.For Elizabeth, her participation in certain events within the town were limited, but as time passed and her acceptance grew it slowly changed. She was able to visit other women within the town, where they drank tea, smoked cigarettes, and chatted about life and one another’s different customs. It took a great deal of time for Elizabeth to be accepted by the different women, it took a great deal of months and many visits with the different women. As time passed more and more of the town’s women began to accepted her for who she was and who she was becoming. Because of her growing acceptanc...
