The Arab World: Personal Encounters

By Elizabeth Warnock Fernea and Robert Fernea. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985. 354 pp. $19.95.

Reviewed by Eric Hooglund

American perceptions of Arabs and the Middle East are shaped to a large extent by stereotypic images. These images are generally negative ones, owing primarily to the media's tendency both to emphasize and sensationalize acts of violence in the Middle East, especially those committed by Palestinians. The unfavorable attitudes are further reinforced by entertainment programs that inevitably depict Arabs as unsavory dramatis personae. And for those who like to read fiction, as well as watch it, there are numerous Arab villains in several popular novels published in recent years. The impact of these grotesque Arab images is to contribute to the misconceptions underlying tensions between the United States and various Arab countries during the past 30 years.

Americans who have lived in the Arab World, as well as others who consider racial and ethnic stereotypes objectionable, find the common stereotypes of Arabs both inaccurate and offensive. For that reason people interested in the Middle East will discover The Arab World by Elizabeth and Robert Fernea a welcome change.

The Ferneas have been involved in the Middle East since 1956. They lived for six years in Egypt, two years in Iraq, 18 months in Morocco, and spent shorter periods of time in Lebanon, Libya, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the West Bank. They have drawn upon their experiences to write this unique memoir of Arabs they have known and major developments they have witnessed. The Ferneas would probably refer to themselves as "participant observers" of the societies in which they have lived and worked. They demonstrate an intimate knowledge of Arab society that could only have been gained through being accepted as close friends, even adoptive kinfolk, of the people about whom they write in an affectionate but insightful manner.

The structure of The Arab World permits the reader to view aspects of life that are all too rarely presented in traditional book format. Thus, encounters in a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon before the 1982 Israeli invasion provide fascinating glimpses into how Palestinian women perceive their role in a society struggling to retain roots to a land under alien control. Conversations with Beirut writers who had survived the worst of the civil war between 1976-81 demonstrate both the despair of, and love for, a country whose society has been torn to shreds by sectarian violence. A dinner in Morocco reveals how well some families had adapted to prosperity which economic change had brought for the middle classes, but simultaneously serves as a reminder of how unevenly economic benefits have been distributed.

The Ferneas have observed major political, social and economic changes in the Middle East since the 1950s, and the impact of these changes on Arab families is a theme which runs throughout The Arab World. The authors provide valuable insights into how different persons involved in the process of socio-economic change perceive their roles. The status of women in societies where traditional values are being reexamined receives considerable attention. A woman doctor in Yemen, for example, insists that it is quite natural to attend to the needs of her family at home and also to attend to the health of her patients outside the home. Palestinian women in refugee camps have similar attitudes about the possibilities of balancing family and extra-familial commitments. An educated woman in Libya, in contrast, finds it extremely difficult to obtain family support for her hope of professional employment. What these attitudes demonstrate, as well as other attitudes about the role of education, is that there is no consensus in the Arab world regarding the best way to adapt to socioeconomic changes.

The encounters of the Ferneas with Egyptians, Lebanese Christians and Muslims, Moroccans, Nubians, Palestinians in refugee camps and on the West Bank and other Arabs of both sexes, all ages and social classes illustrate that Arabs as individuals are as complex as Americans and other peoples and possess similar attitudes and values. The themes which emerge in the encounters—the civil war in Lebanon, labor migration, religious fundamentalism, etc.—are analyzed in ten cogent essays, called "comments," which provide scholarly perspectives. In sum this is a movingly written book which should be required reading for everyone who has a serious interest in the Middle East.

Dr. Eric Hooglund is the former Director of the ADC Research Institute.