Beyond Veiled Clichés
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  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143782612
  • Imprint: Vintage Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $34.99

Beyond Veiled Clichés

The Real Lives of Arab Women

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EBook
29 May 2017
Tr. Paperback
29 May 2017
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Amal Awad spoke with women in the Arab world and Arab Australian women to discover what their lives are really like. The breadth, variety and beauty of what she discovered will surprise you.

Magnificent. Surprising. Illuminating. Australia needs this book.
NIKKI GEMMELL

As someone who has a foot in both the Western and Arabic worlds, Amal set out to explore the lives of Arab women, in Australia and the Middle East, travelling to the region and interviewing more than sixty women about feminism, intimacy, love, sex and shame, trauma, war, religion and culture.

Beyond Veiled Clichés explores the similarities and differences experienced by these women in their daily lives – work, relationships, home and family life, friendships, the communities they live in, and more. Arab-Australian women are at the intersection – between Western ideals and Arab tradition. It can get messy, but there is also great beauty in the layers.

In a time of racial tension and rising global fear around terrorism, there is a renewed fear of 'the other'. At its heart this fascinating book normalises people and their experiences. The breadth, variety and beauty of what Amal has discovered will enthral and surprise you.
  • Published: 29 May 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143782612
  • Imprint: Vintage Australia
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $34.99
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About the author

Amal Awad

Amal Awad is a Sydney-based writer, journalist, author and public speaker. Amal is a regular contributor to SBS Life, and has written for ELLE, Frankie, Daily Life, Sheilas and Junkie. Amal is also a casual producer for ABC Radio National.
With her debut novel, Courting Samira, Amal was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. She contributed to the anthology Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2014), and her second novel, This Is How You Get Better, was published in March 2015.
Amal’s fourth book is called Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women, a work of non-fiction that explores the lives of Arab women both in Australia and in the Arab world.
http://www.amalawad.com/

portrait photo of Amal Awad

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Praise for Beyond Veiled Clichés

In her new book, Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women, Amal Awad brings the much-needed voices of Arab women to the forefront. The author invites us to listen in on her discussions with prominent women in their communities, as well as old friends. The topics range from the inevitable discussion of the hijab, identity politics, and the line between religion and culture to Arab feminism and the experiences of queer Arab women. While many of these vignettes centre on well-worn debates within mainstream media, they also vividly point out that Arab women have been grappling with these issues in their own way and with far greater nuance than Western critics tend to give them credit.

Athena Rogers, Right

Discover more

Article
12 September 2001

Amal Awad reflects on her experiences in the aftermath of 9/11.

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