Fatima, an Arab woman from Iraq and friend of the author's, is the symbol in this book of Arab femininity before Westernization. Her arranged marriage, her joy over the birth of a son, her womanly intelligence merged with a deep conviction in ancient superstition all reflect the workings of a classical society in which the role of man and woman are clearly deliniated and from which no deviation is allowed. Dorothy Van Ess has lived in Iraq where she conducted a church school. She writes of her Arab sisters with quiet understanding and good humor in a bland book which is more to be noted for the information it imparts than for any particular mark of style or intensity. Recommended to lending and Protestant church libraries.