A Woman of Egypt
Readers who enjoyed my novel Virgins of Paradise often ask me to recommend further reading on the subjects I covered in my book. One title I always highly recommend, and which was one of the many references I used while doing research for my novel, is Jehan Sadat’s autobiography, A Woman of Egypt (1987, Simon & Schuster, New York), the intimate and personal story of her love for Anwar Sadat and for her country.
Beautiful, courageous and controversial, Jehan Sadat was the wife of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat, and a woman who lived at the turbulent center of an ancient land. In her autobiography she speaks candidly of her romance at the age of fifteen with a thirty-year-old penniless revolutionary, and their adventurous life together as Anwar rose from war hero to popular ruler of Egypt.
One of Mrs. Sadat’s reasons for writing her autobiography happens to be one of the same reasons I was compelled to write Virgins of Paradise. Here are her own words: “The more I traveled, and the more I talked with people outside of Egypt, the more I realized how misunderstood Egyptian culture was. Many Westerners think of us still as riding on camels, hidden behind veils. But that is the story of Lawrence of Arabia, not of modern Egypt.”
This also happens to be why I wrote Virgins of Paradise, to open a window onto a world that I love with a passion and that I believe is misunderstood by many Westerners. And as I read her story, I knew I must pattern my own heroines after the strong and courageous, yet feminine and wise, Jehan Sadat. The daughter of both an ancient culture and a modern world, she witnessed the emergence of her country from veiled and mysterious to one of progress and modern enlightenment.
If you desire to know more about Islam and its remarkable followers, or the origins and growth of the amazing city of Cairo, if you wish to spend some time in a culture that prays five times a day and fasts for a month, that drives modern cars and jet planes while being caretakers to ancient pyramids, temples and tombs – if you would like to taste and feel and hear and smell the wondrous world embraced within the ancient Nile Valley, I recommend both my own book and Jehan Sadat’s.
Finally, what Mrs. Sadat says of her book is what I would say of Virgins of Paradise: “The book is finished. It is no longer mine, but yours. I hope that when you finish it, you will better understand our beautiful area of the world. Let this book be a bridge between my culture and yours. Let it be a book of peace.”
