A BOOK REVIEW
ZATAAR DAYS, HENNA NIGHTS
by Malik Isasis
Eight years ago, just after September 11, 2001 a friend Farah Nousheen, a Muslim, felt moved to make a documentary, Nazrah: A Muslim Woman’s Perspective. Farah wanted to contextualize Muslim women’s experiences, since most Americans began an abrupt and often miseducation of Muslims and Arabs after the September 11th attacks. I came on board as a producer, cinematographer and editor to help guide Farah through her first foray into independent filmmaking, and it was during filming that I met a petite, introverted, and articulate young woman named Maliha Masood, born in Pakistan, and raised in Seattle. She was an interviewee, whose segment in the documentary dealt with her travels across the Middle East, just a year before September 11th.
Inspired by the doldrums of the hamster-wheel existence in which many of us live, Maliha dropped everything—a well-paying job, and a long-term relationship and bought a one-way ticket to the Middle East, escaping the angst of the rat race in America for a more ethereal angst of finding one’s self in a foreign land.
On the set of the documentary Maliha told me that she was a writer and was writing a memoir of her experience, traveling as a single woman across Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and a few other places in between, but after the documentary, she disappeared—I would later learn to Boston for graduate school.
Two weeks before I was to leave for New York City (2007) I randomly bumped into Maliha at a small arts event after several years of a communication blackout. She promptly handed me a post card with graphics of her freshly published book, Zataar Days, Henna Nights and asked me to attend her book reading. I recall not being able to attend, but arranging to meet for coffee.
It was during the coffee date she handed me a copy of the book, as a going away gift. After getting her to sign the book, I put it away in my backpack where it stayed for months. It wasn’t until several of my female friends encouraged me to read Eat, Pray, Love (a runaway blockbuster travelogue) that I decided out of respect, to dig into my packed boxes to find Maliha Masood’s travelogue, Zataar Days, Henna Nights and read. I cracked it opened and read her lovely scribbles:
“To my friend Malik. It’s all about the process. Keep on traveling. Love Maliha. 3/16/07”
ADVENTURES, DREAMS, and DESTINATIONS
I’ve only read two travelogues, or memoirs—Eat, Pray, Love and Zataar Days, Henna Nights, and both share a basic premise or setup, a personal crisis of some sort, sending the protagonist reeling into self-doubt and in search of self, thus beginning a personal pilgrimage across foreign lands in search of an antidote for whatever emotional ailments. What is starkly different in my mind is that Elizabeth Gilbert's (Eat, Prey, Love) voice is mostly internal, constantly giving the score on her emotions at nearly every turn, whereas Maliha Masood’s voice is external, keeping her secrets and feelings closely guarded even when she finds herself in the most absurd of situations.
The first chapter, A Leap in the Dark, where we find our protagonist sitting in the backseat of a car while her parents drive her to the airport is one of the few times the reader gets a peak behind Ms Masood’s emotional curtains, as she describes a quiet panic of doubt, questioning her decision to uproot her life. The comfort, and encouragement she receives in the airport before departing from her parents reveals the deep connection she has with them, and conjures up the childhood feelings of being left behind by your parents on your first day of kindergarten.
Masood’s prose style is surgical, not giving any more details than necessary, for which there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that she mostly avoids the self-indulgence of writing a memoir, that is, the heighten self-involvement that seems absurd when juxtaposed with people lives in an under developed country. The disadvantage is having the author’s voice be at times detached, and having to read between the lines of what she is feeling. There were a couple of young Arab men in Zataar Days with whom Ms Masood bonded. They were her Sherpa, helping her navigate through the cultural terrain of local customs and traditions. She clearly developed emotional attachments throughout her journey, but both platonic romances seemed to build up, only to end abruptly and without closure. You'll have to read between the lines, or triangulate the behavior of a free spirit Australian, who joins her early in her trek.
Masood’s spirit and writing comes alive as she recounts the meeting and traveling with an adventurous, Australian named Bea, whom she met while in Europe. Bea joined her on a significant leg of her journey across the Middle East. Bea is at the opposite end of the spectrum, gregarious and sexually expressive, and she seems to be the one who gets the two women in the most bizarre of situations. Through Masood’s eyes, there are hints of admiration as she watches Bea hypnotize men with her looks and wit. Masood tastefully sizes herself up to Bea, but allows Bea’s actions to speak for itself.
Masood’s non-judgmental writing style feels like a documentary, allowing the Egyptians, Syrians, and Lebanese people she came across to speak for themselves, without romanticizing their poverty, politics or overly nobelizing the natives as Westerners tend to do. Zataar Days, Henna Nights is a well-written personable tome, involving, and at times, moving.
It is clear to the author as well as the reader by the end of her journey that traveling was only the beginning of dealing with the aches and pains of life, and that running off to Egypt, or Syria was only cosmetic, and that real growth occurs from within, no passports needed.
ZATAAR DAYS, HENNA NIGHTS
by Malik Isasis
Eight years ago, just after September 11, 2001 a friend Farah Nousheen, a Muslim, felt moved to make a documentary, Nazrah: A Muslim Woman’s Perspective. Farah wanted to contextualize Muslim women’s experiences, since most Americans began an abrupt and often miseducation of Muslims and Arabs after the September 11th attacks. I came on board as a producer, cinematographer and editor to help guide Farah through her first foray into independent filmmaking, and it was during filming that I met a petite, introverted, and articulate young woman named Maliha Masood, born in Pakistan, and raised in Seattle. She was an interviewee, whose segment in the documentary dealt with her travels across the Middle East, just a year before September 11th.
Inspired by the doldrums of the hamster-wheel existence in which many of us live, Maliha dropped everything—a well-paying job, and a long-term relationship and bought a one-way ticket to the Middle East, escaping the angst of the rat race in America for a more ethereal angst of finding one’s self in a foreign land.
On the set of the documentary Maliha told me that she was a writer and was writing a memoir of her experience, traveling as a single woman across Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and a few other places in between, but after the documentary, she disappeared—I would later learn to Boston for graduate school.
Two weeks before I was to leave for New York City (2007) I randomly bumped into Maliha at a small arts event after several years of a communication blackout. She promptly handed me a post card with graphics of her freshly published book, Zataar Days, Henna Nights and asked me to attend her book reading. I recall not being able to attend, but arranging to meet for coffee.
It was during the coffee date she handed me a copy of the book, as a going away gift. After getting her to sign the book, I put it away in my backpack where it stayed for months. It wasn’t until several of my female friends encouraged me to read Eat, Pray, Love (a runaway blockbuster travelogue) that I decided out of respect, to dig into my packed boxes to find Maliha Masood’s travelogue, Zataar Days, Henna Nights and read. I cracked it opened and read her lovely scribbles:
“To my friend Malik. It’s all about the process. Keep on traveling. Love Maliha. 3/16/07”
ADVENTURES, DREAMS, and DESTINATIONS
I’ve only read two travelogues, or memoirs—Eat, Pray, Love and Zataar Days, Henna Nights, and both share a basic premise or setup, a personal crisis of some sort, sending the protagonist reeling into self-doubt and in search of self, thus beginning a personal pilgrimage across foreign lands in search of an antidote for whatever emotional ailments. What is starkly different in my mind is that Elizabeth Gilbert's (Eat, Prey, Love) voice is mostly internal, constantly giving the score on her emotions at nearly every turn, whereas Maliha Masood’s voice is external, keeping her secrets and feelings closely guarded even when she finds herself in the most absurd of situations.
The first chapter, A Leap in the Dark, where we find our protagonist sitting in the backseat of a car while her parents drive her to the airport is one of the few times the reader gets a peak behind Ms Masood’s emotional curtains, as she describes a quiet panic of doubt, questioning her decision to uproot her life. The comfort, and encouragement she receives in the airport before departing from her parents reveals the deep connection she has with them, and conjures up the childhood feelings of being left behind by your parents on your first day of kindergarten.
Masood’s prose style is surgical, not giving any more details than necessary, for which there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that she mostly avoids the self-indulgence of writing a memoir, that is, the heighten self-involvement that seems absurd when juxtaposed with people lives in an under developed country. The disadvantage is having the author’s voice be at times detached, and having to read between the lines of what she is feeling. There were a couple of young Arab men in Zataar Days with whom Ms Masood bonded. They were her Sherpa, helping her navigate through the cultural terrain of local customs and traditions. She clearly developed emotional attachments throughout her journey, but both platonic romances seemed to build up, only to end abruptly and without closure. You'll have to read between the lines, or triangulate the behavior of a free spirit Australian, who joins her early in her trek.
Masood’s spirit and writing comes alive as she recounts the meeting and traveling with an adventurous, Australian named Bea, whom she met while in Europe. Bea joined her on a significant leg of her journey across the Middle East. Bea is at the opposite end of the spectrum, gregarious and sexually expressive, and she seems to be the one who gets the two women in the most bizarre of situations. Through Masood’s eyes, there are hints of admiration as she watches Bea hypnotize men with her looks and wit. Masood tastefully sizes herself up to Bea, but allows Bea’s actions to speak for itself.
Masood’s non-judgmental writing style feels like a documentary, allowing the Egyptians, Syrians, and Lebanese people she came across to speak for themselves, without romanticizing their poverty, politics or overly nobelizing the natives as Westerners tend to do. Zataar Days, Henna Nights is a well-written personable tome, involving, and at times, moving.
It is clear to the author as well as the reader by the end of her journey that traveling was only the beginning of dealing with the aches and pains of life, and that running off to Egypt, or Syria was only cosmetic, and that real growth occurs from within, no passports needed.
posted by Malik Isasis at
9:03 PM
1 Comments:
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