Within the Circle

When American anthropologist Andrea Rugh rented a room in a small Syrian village, hoping to find time to finish a book she was writing, she never expected to be drawn so deeply into the lives of her neighbors. But she developed close friendships with two households -- those of her landlady and her landlady's sister. For eight months Rugh observed and wrote about the lives of these two families and their ten children. The result is a uniquely intimate account of family life and child rearing in Middle Eastern society.
 Within the Circle is a detailed, vividly crafted portrait of families in a changing world, chronicling the day-to-day life among family members, between parents and children, and between families and the larger world of the village. The book results from the personal quest of the author to understand the cultural aspects of her own child rearing practices. She contrasts her experiences as an American mother raising three independent, self-sufficient boys with the experiences of village parents striving to form a closely-knit family unit.

History

Rugh, Andrea B.

Middle East

Columbia University Press

Family in contemporary Egypt (Contemporary issues in the Middle East)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Syracuse University Press

Family in Contemporary Egypt (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East)

Syracuse Univ Pr

International Development in Practice: Education Assistance in Egypt, Pakistan, and Afghanistan

Christians in the Middle East have come under increasing pressure in recent years with the rise of radical Islam. In Egypt, the large Coptic Christian community has traditionally played an important political and historical role. This book examines Egyptian Christians' responses to sectarian pressures in both national and local contexts.

Christians in Egypt: Strategies and Survival

Science & Math

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

The Greater Middle East poses major challenges for the United States. Yet despite decades of intense involvement in Middle Eastern affairs, most Americans still know little about the cultures of the region. Simple Gestures describes one American’s efforts over forty years to better understand the society in the countries where she lived and worked: Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In her multiple roles, Andrea Rugh came to know people from many walks of life. As a mother, she became friendly with local families. As the wife of a diplomat, who later became an ambassador to two countries, she came to know social elites in the Persian Gulf. As a professional anthropologist, she spent time with people from parts of society who are usually inaccessible to foreigners. Culture is revealed most clearly in the way people interact with one another—in the way they treat the poor, the elderly, and women; how they rear and educate their children; and in the way they react to a foreigner suddenly thrust in their midst. Describing the satisfactions, sudden insights, challenges, and miscommunications that come from being immersed in a foreign culture, Rugh brings to life on the page the places and the people she met along the way.

Simple Gestures: A Cultural Journey into the Middle East

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

POTOMAC BOOKS

During the 1980s, religious conservativism gained momentum in Egypt after military defeats and major social and economic upheavals. A few months after Sadat’s assassination by religious extremists in 1981 a column appeared in Al-Ahram responding to letters of Egyptians caught in the problems of daily living. The columnist, Abdul Wahab al-Mutawa, a self-proclaimed humanist, published complaints about government services, and offered solutions to personal problems. He felt people suffered from straying too far from time-tested social traditions. He saw some good in religious conservativism when people sought happiness in family life, but criticized radicals with unrealistic dreams through messages embedded in his columns.
 Also appearing were advice columns written by religious sheikhs mostly affiliated with Al-Azhar University. These columns described Islam’s relevance to modern life and answered questions on religious practice. As competitors, it’s easier to see how these columns were shaped to counter the extremists. But these state-salaried writers showed a perplexing ambivalence by sometimes supporting the government and sometimes extremists. Only in retrospect can we see why this happened. 
 This book is the first to plumb the depths of personal experience in the volatile 1980s, showing people’s desire for moral certainty and laying the groundwork for the disruptions behind the Uprising of 2011. The book describes the columnists’ prescriptions for leading the good life, how they modeled “moderation” and the influences that discouraged their full candor.

Egyptian Advice Columnists: Envisioning the Good Life in an Era of Extremism (Critical Pedagogy)

Dio Press Inc

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Books by Rugh, Andrea B.