Beyond Veiled Cliches The Real Lives of Arab Women

Beyond Veiled Cliches : The Real Lives of Arab Women
ISBN: 9780143782612
Publication Date: 29 May 2017

As someone who has a foot in both the Western and Arabic worlds, Amal set out to explore the lives of Arab women, in Australia and the Middle East, travelling to the region and interviewing more than sixty women about feminism, intimacy, love, sex and shame, trauma, war, religion and culture.

Beyond Veiled Cliches explores the similarities and differences experienced by these women in their daily lives - work, relationships, home and family life, friendships, the communities they live in, and more. Arab-Australian women are at the intersection - between Western ideals and Arab tradition. It can get messy, but there is also great beauty in the layers.

In a time of racial tension and rising global fear around terrorism, there is a renewed fear of 'the other'. At its heart this fascinating book normalises people and their experiences. The breadth, variety and beauty of what Amal has discovered will enthral and surprise you.

About the Author

Amal Awad is a Sydney-based writer, journalist, author and public speaker. Amal is a regular contributor to SBS Life, and has written for ELLE, Frankie, Daily Life, Sheilas and Junkie. Amal is also a casual producer for ABC Radio National.

With her debut novel, Courting Samira, Amal was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She contributed to the anthology Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen &; Unwin, 2014), and her second novel, This Is How You Get Better, was published in March 2015.

Amal's fourth book is called Beyond Veiled Cliches: The Real Lives of Arab Women, a work of non-fiction that explores the lives of Arab women both in Australia and in the Arab world.