Muhajababes

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 280 pages
• Published by: Melville House June 1, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1933633506
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1933633503
• Book Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 9.9 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Two-thirds of the Middle East—a quarter of a billion people—are 25 or younger, a demographic as large as it is unrepresented in Western media. With aplomb and scads of self-deprecating wit, journalist Stratton, herself 25 years old and a self-professed naïf about the Arab and Muslim world, plunges into youth culture in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait. Her findings are epitomized by the book's title; the term muhajababes (coined by one of Stratton's interviewees) describe veiled young women who combine traditional piety with a secular sensibility, wearing tight jeans with their head scarves and following pop stars and religious leaders with equal devotion. My methodology was to talk to everyone who seemed my age, Stratton writes, including men and women, religious visionaries and artists, revolutionaries and small-business owners. In visiting pockets of the Middle East seldom seen in the Western media (a Kuwaiti student union, a Damascus newspaper), she skillfully renders the frequently downplayed differences between the countries and their shared effort to integrate centuries of history with an avalanche of modern influences. The book's lacunae are not unimportant—Stratton doesn't step beyond urban population centers or speak with any local experts who might have helped analyze the tumble of information—but her genuine and frankly affectionate engagement makes Muhajababes an entertaining addition to the shelf of anyone hoping to actually understand, rather than stereotype, Arabs and Muslims . (July 1)
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Product Description


“Muhajababes will disabuse you of your preconceptions of the Middle East forever.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Fascinating. . . . Muhajababes is direct, energetic, and unpretentious.”—Guardian

“Littered with funny, often charming moments. . . . [Allegra] Stratton has a candid style, not only with the reader, but with her respondents, who clearly open up to her in confidence. . . . It is a world that should be visited . . . [and] Muhajababes provides a valuable passport.”—The Australian

Two-thirds of the Middle East’s population is under twenty-five, with an explosive growth in the number of college graduates. Allegra Stratton, a twenty-five-year-old producer for the BBC, traveled to Beirut, Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Kuwait City, and Damascus to understand what daily life is like in Arab and Muslim youth culture.

There she found a massive media industry of music videos and scantily clad pop stars vying with the voice of conservative Islam condemning Western culture and immodest dress. But for most young Muslim women, there is no conflict:

They were cigarillo thin and Coco Chanel chic. Both wore black-nylon boot-cut hipster trousers and high heels, carried baguette handbags and wrapped around their heads were black, sheer headscarves as tight as the rest of their outfits. Darah commented: “The results of video-clips are these girls. I call them muhajababes.”

"Muhajaba” means girl who veils . . . but look at them. They’re babes.

Allegra Stratton is a producer at the BBC in London. She has worked at the foreign desk at The Times and written for The Independent, The Times, and the New Statesman.

Reader Reviews
There are many good points about this book. However, when the editor confuses "peak" with "peek," bookends an activity with "at random," or allows "the morning after the night before," it makes it difficult to read.