1999- 2000 New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.

In regard to Leila Ahmed's latest novel, the truth is definitely in the title. A border passage is an intimate account of life, and the journey one embarks on when one truly wishes to 'live life.' Ahmed writes about 'border passages,' passages from girlhood to womanhood, citizenship to immigrant, from Arab nationalism to Western feminism, and perhaps most importantly Egyptian to Arab. This book is a memoir, but it doesn't confine itself to the restrictions of the entirely personal. A Border Passage embodies the notion that the personal is political: and the political is also personal. And it's her 'personal' that take on the events that fashioned Egypt, her mother nation, which makes this novel brilliant. Leila Ahmed calls her book just a "work of memory," however it is much more than that. She delves into the Suez Crisis and Nasser's Arab Nationalism, what it means to be Arab and when exactly Egyptians became Arab, and finally the Harem reexamined in regard to "aural" Islam.

A Border Passage, is the story of her intellectual and emotional journey from a advantaged childhood in post-world War II Egypt to Cambrid

It is this notion that the essence of Islam can be found in the everyday routine of the spoken tradition, that intrigued Ahmed, she found that it was indeed 'this Islam' that was upheld by most worshipers, "Now, after a lifetime of meeting and talking with Muslims from all over the world, I find that this Islam is one of the common varieties - perhaps even the common or garden variety - of the religion." (125). When religion is alive in your heart it is part of everything you do. It is this idea that Islam or any religion should be 'lived' not 'learned' it should come from the heart with no obligation, or guilt, only in this sense is an individual truly worshiping, truly turning every thought toward God.

These themes seem uncomplicated however they are marvelously complex in their simplicity; it is one thing to say you are fair but another to act fairly, it is one thing to say you are merciful but another to show mercy. This passage expresses Ahmed's point beautifully; there is a huge difference between saying and doing. In this 'aural' Islam there is emphasis on action, actually 'living' these themes, rather than reading about them. One actually must 'live' Islam, one must act mercifully, justly, peacefully, compassionately, fairly, kindly, truthfully, or else one is not 'living' Islam. And it is this notion that Ahmed suggests embodies 'lived' Islam. She also makes the distinction that this 'aural' tradition belongs not only to women but also to great Muslim philosophers, visionaries and mystics, "it has not been only women and simple, unlearned folk who have believed."(130). That is to say that this notion of 'female' Islam is not less or subservient to the 'official' Islam.

Ahmed makes the point that when Islam is 'aural' there is a greater understanding of its major themes, because they are recurring. The themes repeated throughout the Quran are in essential fundamental to human existence and peaceful cohabitation.

---Ahmed explains that the Egyptians identity of Arab didn't come about until recently. The word 'Arab' once referred only to the nomadic peoples of Arabia, and the 'Arab world.'(247). Exploring the meaning of Arab-ness feels to Ahmed like committing treason against her people and homeland, "I felt like a betrayer."(254). She goes on to say, "I am taking apart the notion of Arabness and following out the history of when and how we became Arab just to know not with the object of, or as code for, the betrayal of anybody."(256). She comes to the realization that 'Arab-ness' was thrust on her people with many hidden agendas, "Eventually I began to see the constructed nature of our Arab identity as it was formed and reformed to serve the political interests of the day."(267). In the end, she comes to this conclusion. She was not simply born Arab, but rather she became one through revolution, need for definition, and political agendas.

ge University in the sixties and finally to the United States, where she now teaches and lives. It is a luxuriously perceptive account of the internal conflicts of a generation coming of age during and after the disintegration of European imperialism. Ahmed grew up in the final days of the British Empire, when the words 'the West' 'imperialism' had not yet obtained the implications they embody nowadays, they had not yet become synonyms for 'racism,' 'oppression' and 'exploitation'. (5). Her correlation to colonialism and to English speaking culture is complicated. Race, culture, and language for Ahmed are not in any way black or white, their boundaries are indefinable just like the people who embody and use them. Ahmed had a fundamentally European education. (23). She was raised in a home full of books, she read the British classics and set her sights on Cambridge at an early age. In later years her doctoral dissertation was on Edward William Lane, a 19th century British Orientalist whose work was considered objectionable by some Arab nationalists, but was greatly admire

Some common words found in the essay are:
America American, Egyptian Arab, Islam' Ahmed, Ahmed Ahmed, Aswan Dam, British Empire, Leila Ahmed's, Christian Jewish, Border Passage, Originally Quran, arab nationalism, border passage, america story, 'official' islam, aural islam, egyptians arab finally, crisis nasser's, delves suez, suez crisis, means arab, arab exactly, exactly egyptians arab, harem reexamined regard, disintegration european imperialism, finally harem reexamined,
Approximate Word count = 2929
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)