As far as a source for world literature that covers the range of everything from contemporary poetry to contemporary drama, there may be no equal to this book.

This is a story about a nurse (Zainaba) who lives in Mauritana. Zainaba and her friend has established a training "programme" for traditional midwives living in isolated communites. As part of the "programme" they discuss female circumcision to the midwives. This story is very informing and interesting.

I absolutely love this book.
It gave me a wholistic view of women's lives in the Middle East. I love the combination of short fictional stories, autobiographies, and essays. This book is entertaining as well as mind opening.

Six years ago my girlfriend gave me this book, I am ever grateful to her and the persons who compiled these writings. As an American born Arab woman, Opening the gates gave me a sense of pride to be Arab and to be an Arab woman that no other book has done. I actually read stories in this book that my aunt (a woman with no formal education, living in a small village under Israeli occupation in the West Bank) used to tell me as a child. I was able to see that even in the simplist of Arab women and even as far back as a hundred years, flickers the flame of independence and the yearning to be recognized and appreciated as equal contributing members of society and mankind.

I think that this is a great book for people and especially students that are not very familiar with the Israeli -Palestine conflict. I think that this is a great representation of the view of women, women's experience and so forth. This is a bit confuding chronologically, but that is the sybolic part,....Its a quick read