08 Oct 2003

Guests of the Sheik Reflection (2)

            At the conclusion of Part IV of Guests of the Sheik, Elizabeth states:

How little I really knew about the society in which I was living… the pattern of custom and tradition which governed the lives of my friends was far more subtle and complex than I had imagined (p266).

This truly shapes the second half of her journey in the Middle East as she flounders her way through the more composite lifestyle that is the Iraqi way of life.  Elizabeth has earned many friends, and generally found the native people to be human and hospitable, however that’s where common ground ceases and becomes a rough personal interaction. Portraying her contact with the tribal women, she learns how deeply they respect and depend on growing friendships between women. In view of the fact that they do not interact socially with the men, these women rely on each other for companionship, advice, and solace from life’s necessities of survival.

            This close-knit dependence is not easily understood for Elizabeth . Enjoying time with other American travelers one evening, Elizabeth is visited unexpectedly, and obtrusively, by her friends, who have come to “keep [her] company, so that [she] wouldn’t have to be alone all evening” (p278). The women’s social segregation from the men, and their way of coping with it is not always compatible with her ‘Amerikiya’ roots. Even as she later becomes ill and desires solitude, rest, and recuperation, Laila stays all day, demanding that loneliness is considered abandonment and recovery requires companionship and family and friends (p274).

In light of these things, Elizabeth now understands how and why the Iraqi women interrelate the way they do, however, she must yet learn the repercussions of such social tradition, and see the entire iceberg of effects these women have on her and those around them.

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