I felt trapped in my own culture when I was a young woman, feeling pressure to do these things.Some, though not all, Muslim women are free also in having a home and social life mainly with other women, and in living in extended families, as opposed to the closed male-dominated nuclear family in which I grew up [where] a child no adults other than her own parent(s) from whom to draw support.From there she had the opportunity to work in Egypt, Syria and Israel before teaching at Birzeit University in the West Bank. For those of you who don’t have immediate access to the book, Moore agreed to share some of her experiences with Epicure & Culture through an exclusive interview.The entire trip through the Middle East lasted 15 years. She describes daily life, navigating her identity, interacting with men and other women in the Middle East, and gaining a better understanding of Muslim culture (hint: the answers may surprise you).Also, while I would not have feared for my physical safety had I been “out,” I did worry that those who cared about me would reject me socially if they knew I was a lesbian.And it was clear that any intimate relationship I might initiate with an Arab woman would put that woman at risk of approbation in her own society.

Returning to the Arab world in 1992, I already expected to love wherever I went. I went because my life had opened in a way to allow it, because I had chronic fatigue and knew that among Arabs I would find emotional sustenance, and because I wanted to understand more about the situation in both Israel and Palestine.

Her book, Why, I was asked, would I want to live in an Arab country? Before visiting the Arab World, Moore earned a BA from Harvard University and worked as a journalist.

She has also earned her living as a carpenter and general building contractor, an editor and researcher, and a teacher of English for Academic Purposes. I made up my mind after reading a book by the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, where he described building houses of mud brick for poor people.

I had known when I left Egypt that I would want to return to learn which of the strands had attracted me so: did I love Egypt primarily because of special qualities that country had? Although I went first to Syria, my ultimate destination was to be Palestine.

3) In the book you talk about how foreign women avoid the gender classification that local women are expected to follow. Any time I felt myself being treated differently from local women I had to look at what this meant.