Review. The Abaya Chronicles: An Abaya-Clad Perspective

As the final assignment in our journalism course at Zayed University, our professor, Tina Lesher, asked us, her “banaat” [Arabic for girls] as she often called us, to interview an Emirati woman at least a generation older. Briskly, I threw together a 4-page report about my oldest sister. Of course, knowing Professor Lesher was a Fulbright scholar who made no secret of her intentions of researching the lives of Emirati women, I was naturally suspicious and gave my sister an alias. The result: “Great work, Maitha. That lady you interviewed, Deema Abdalla… it’s one of the best I’ve read so far.”