I was lucky enough to pick The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes up an Amazon First Reads as otherwise I may not have heard of the book for a while. Admittedly, I do not tend to read my Amazon First Reads within the first month of getting them, however I was very drawn to Alya Mooro's book because the Middle East and Arab culture is a place I find myself distinctly lacking knowledge about. I understand some of the basics of the history, the foundations of Islam and specific expectations within those cultures. However, I do not have any Middle Eastern friends, and I have limited exposure to talking to people from the Middle East. Alya Mooro is British-Egyptian woman who was born in Egypt and raised in both London and Egypt. Therefore, I thought this book would be a good foray into understanding how British culture and Middle Eastern culture interact. I would reiterate the fact that this book is written by a woman who is by her own admission from a fairly liberal background, who has spent a large part of her life surrounded by Western culture. Therefore, do not expect it to be the voices of all Arab women, nor should anybody expect that from one book alone.

However, I think this book is a fantastic starting point for all women, especially white, western women who have had limited interactions with Middle Eastern women and the Middle Eastern community to enable us to be better about intersectional feminism and reduce our ignorance. I think this is particularly important at the current point in time and political climate surrounding the Middle East, driven by the likes of Donald Trump etc.

The book is largely a mix between Alya Mooro discussing her life, her childhood and growing up as a British-Egyptian and the interaction between those two cultures. She looks at how these two cultures and the clash between them impacted on her as she became and adult; she examines the impact on her relationship with her family and with the people she dated. This is interwoven into the various thematic chapters that cover themes such as: family, sexuality, feminism, marriage etc
and how those themes fit with the idea of being a Middle Eastern woman. This made the book both personal and a poignant piece of non-fiction.

I also think the really interesting part about the book is how Alya Mooro spoke about how she never really fit into either place. She didn't fit the British expectations because she had Arab parents who still expected her home earlier than her British friends, but then in Egypt she was the 'Western kid' because she wasn't Arab enough. It's an interesting issue that surrounds individuals with this dual cultural identity, and one I do not think we address enough in society. We claim to be a multi-cultural United Kingdom and cosmopolitan etc, but then we fail to accept all sides of a person's identity and culture and we do not allow them to be 'British-Egyptian' without questioning their differences.

It is clear that Mooro has spent a lot of time researching her novel, talking to her social media communities and followers to investigate and consider how Middle Eastern women conceive of themselves and how they are viewed by others. Alya Mooro made lots of interesting points about Arab culture that I just wasn't aware of and had never really thought about. She has thoroughly footnoted to articles, pieces of non-fiction and research that she quotes meaning it is easy to trace back to the source on things she was quoting, and investigate more about those specific pieces. This is also particularly handy if you wanted to read more about Middle Eastern women and Arab culture as now I have a few extra books I want to read following on from this.

I also thought that Mooro made some fantastic points that are applicable across all cultures to women, particularly around the ideas of sex and sexuality. Her chapters on sex and sexuality were perhaps the most interesting and thought provoking to me, as she spoke about the shame associated with enjoying sex. The drive in young girls and the pressure they feel they are under to have sex, whilst all of this is not necessarily true. I think she made so many important and valid points about how young women across the globe need to feel comfortable in their own bodies, need to feel that they can have sex when they want, how they want and they can enjoy sex. I think sex has been a tool of male oppression and will continue to be used against women, as women face rape, arranged marriages, genital mutilation and all kinds of sexual harassment and sexual violence. For me these themes that were discussed throughout the whole book as Alya Mooro opened up on a very personal note about her relationships and some of her sexual history (which is a pretty big thing to do, considering how many women are slandered for being open about their sexuality), made these even more poignant.

This book has left me curious for more, and I have already followed a few of the links and picked up a couple of books that Alya Mooro referenced in her book. I would recommend this book to everyone!