I’m finally getting around to reading my electronic advance reader copy of In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta Ahmed.  Yes, it was published two years ago, but I didn’t have a viable way to read the PDF download (I don’t consider a computer screen a viable way to read a book).  Enter the iPad this year, and I transferred the file to GoodReader.  Much better.

This book is written by an American-educated British Muslim female doctor who contracted to work for the Saudi National Guard Hospital.  Yes, that is a mouthful.  The book isn’t so much about her doctoring but more about living in the Kingdom.  As a Muslim, she thought she would do well — she welcomed the opportunity to know Islam better.  She was sometimes surprised by what she found.

I’m a little more than half way through the book, and she has experienced joy, frustration, anger, and some disillusionment.  Islam is a peaceful loving religion, but she sees perversions of it at nearly every turn.  She’s also surprised to learn the older Riyadh residents did not grow up with the religious police — people my age and younger have been subjected to it, but people my parents age grew up in a very different Riyadh.  Women were not forced to wear the ab-ayahs; they could travel freely and drive themselves.  I think it’s important to realize the culture in Saudi Arabia where women are severely restricted in their actions and movements is a relatively new thing, and there are men and women alike in the Kingdom who do not favor this.  There are some, many of whom are young people, so do agree with it.  I highly recommend this book as a means to gain insight into a complex subject of significant concern to the world.

Qanta talks of progressive Saudis, whose actions sound like they are trying to advance Saudi Arabia to the place we have come to expect the United States to be — equal rights and opportunity for men and women.  Excellent medical care.  Pride in country.  These are the progressives.  People who are moving Saudi Arabia to be more like the United States.

In a similar vein, I find it interesting that progressives in the United States seem to be trying to move the United States to a more dependent, backward country along the lines of Third World countries and failed nation states.

Why is progressive a term with nearly opposite meanings in different parts of the world?