Leila Ahmed's childhood was not limited in playing with rag-dolls and going to school. She was awarded responsibilities from the very beginning of her youth. Her family was pro-active about her future, so she was allowed to pursue her education. For 3 decades Egypt had been a democ

But, she didn't give up that easy. She admitts that getting the passport was one of her biggest challenges of life. She re-aplied for her travel documetns. The corrupted administration under Nasser stretched the simple process of issueing her passport from days to months. Leila was travelling "from office to office, table to table, person to person", but nothing wokred. The unavoidable frustratioon drove her to the limit as she completely lost her hope of ever leaving Egypt and studying in Cambridge University in England. "This was a way to get back to my Dad" (Ahmed, 46) says Leila.Though her father was indirectly to blame for her sufferings, she had no complaints for him. She admired her father for his integrity, clarity of vision, open mindedness, and colonized consciousness. Such an admirer of her father worked at the passport office, who was glad to help Leila because she was the proud daughter of the "man who had dared to disobey Nasser."

Leila Ahmed was very observant as a child. She saw that most of the girls of her age were more inclined to Western music than Arabic ones. The children who went to English school hated Arabic songs. "They rolled their eyes and sighed deeply" (Ahmed, 79) when listening to these kind of music. English was regarded as the superior language and culture in Egypt, even after the Revolution. Leila regards herself as a samrt student and says, "I could do well at school when I wanted to." (Ahmed, 144) Her confrontation with her English teacher Mr. Pierce was interesting. He denied to grade the papers she wrote, because they were too good to be written by a senior school student. However, when she was graded, her points were intetionally lowered than her Chritian friend, Jean. Leila recalls that her teacher was trying to prove that Chritians are way better than Muslims.

She had her eyes set on being a writer, when she grew up. She loved to read English books. When she tells her mother that she wanted to be a writer, she (mother) got very emotional. She told Leila that she always wanted to be a writer herself, but the soceity's conservative point-of-views and opprtunities available were not enough. She hoped that her daughter would full-fill her wishes byt being a writer. She told Leila to write a story about Mrs.Ahmed. But, a mother's appeal was not strong enough for a fifteen years old student. "The last thing I wanted was to end up lke my mother" (Ahmed, 74) - was her attitude. Later, Leila realized her mistake; as a matured person and a powerful writer she regreted that she did not know that people like her mother who are involved in "shaping the consciousness of others, create their own lives text, oral, evanescent texts that are every bit as rich and sustaining as

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1837
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)