Today is the first day of Ramadan, a time when one billion Muslims make physical and spiritual practice a single thing through the act of fasting, and when emptiness and fullness are cued by the movements of the sun. In honor of this month of reflection, here is some Ramadan Reading for you.
- Laila Lalami reviews A Quiet Revolution by Leila Ahmed in The Los Angeles Times, a book that examines the very recent resurgence of the veil in the Middle East and America. It sounds fascinating: Lalami writes that "'A Quiet Revolution'" is an important book ... Ahmed's work will no doubt continue to inspire a new generation of Muslim feminists."
- Hesham A. Hassaballa on "The Joys and Sorrows of Ramadan."
- The August issue of Words Without Borders continues to explore the Arab Spring by examining and featuring the literature from the Middle East, particularly Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. (A previous issue explored literature from North Africa.) There is, for example, an interview with Rafik Schami, the Syrian writer who has been in exile for forty years, and fiction by Wajdi Muhammad Abduh al-Ahdal of Yemen, an Arab Booker finalist.
- "How will Ramadan Affect the Arab Revolutions?"
- From the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, an online exhibit: "Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes."
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