By Alanna Alexander

Sophia Al Maria, author of The Girl Who Fell to Earth, is visiting Northwestern University in Qatar this week to share her published memoir with the community. This book is part of the newly initiated “One Book One NUQ” program. 

As described on the main campus website, One Book One Northwestern is a “community-wide reading program, hosted by the Office of the President.”

“Our own One Book One NUQ is more recent than the program at main campus,” said Sandra Richards, director of the liberal arts program at NU-Q. “Like other programs, ours aims to connect various classes of students, faculty, and staff in reading literature that is relevant to the region. The hope is that having a shared text helps nurture intellectual debate and community.”

Al Maria, who is an author, artist and filmmaker, visited several classes, including Tracy Vaughn’s Trespassing and the Performance of Identity class, and held discussions during the week for questions on her coming-of-age memoir.

Her book is the story of a Qatari-American girl’s identity struggle. Many have acknowledged that Al Maria is a pioneer as an internationally accredited female author, but some have found the book controversial for its sex.

The book was conceived from various essays Al Maria wrote in Bidoun Magazine in New York and portrays many events from her childhood – a combination of a life in Seattle and Doha — and the dilemma that comes from being part of two worlds that, at first, seem to be poles apart.

The book paints a picture of what it means to have a Bedouin family in Qatar and an American family in Seattle but it also shows the uncertainty that comes from being an outsider in both of these cultures.

“Airport bookshops are full of books with a girl in a veil on the cover and that was my worst nightmare. Then it started to occur to me that this was an opportunity to kick all of those kinds of books aside and make something that would be very different and that would be, hopefully, intelligent,” Al Maria said.

In addition to being circulated to all students at the university, the book was taught in many liberal arts classes at NU-Q this year, including a freshman English Composition class at NU-Q. Aamer Hassan and Reem Saad, both journalism freshman taking the class, have not shared the same experience.

“She explained vividly each character in her novel: her grandma, cousins, the locations, and so on. So if you’re in America and you’re interested in reading about the Bedu lifestyle, this book is a great tool,” Hassan said. “She compares and contrasts the two cultures that she’s lived in. It was a very interesting ‘coming of age’ memoir.”

Saad, however, was disappointed with the book. She thought it was limited in that it provided a sufficiently colorful description but did not go on to create an emotional or cerebral experience for readers.

“There are many events but she never elaborated on them or how she felt about them. She’d talk about the feelings of other characters, like her parents or her sister, but she would never talk about how she felt. And it’s a memoir about her. I felt she was skimming through everything,” Saad said.

From the Q & A session with the author that was held earlier this week, it seemed that most of the controversy surrounding the book resulted from an explicitly described sexual encounter that occurred while the author was in Cairo during her college years.

Although many students had a problem with that chapter, most did not want to go on record with their thoughts. However, Maha Al-Ansari, a Qatari journalism junior, claimed that regardless of this, she wasn’t offended by the book as she didn’t read it with the mindset that it represented all Qatari youth.

“I think her book discusses a very specific and rare case, and as long as it is read in that way and people don’t mistake it for being a representation for all of us, then it’s fine,” Al-Ansari said.

Al Maria also said that the memoir was intended to solely represent herself. “Trying to the write larger story would require a lifetime, which I haven’t lived yet and I think it would give people reason to say, ‘That’s not how it is.’ With this, it is my decision to make a statement and write a metaphor about my own life – like a fairytale,” she said.

Both Hassan and Saad applaud Al Maria for having the courage to avoid self-censorship. “She exposed it to show that you are who you are, don’t be ashamed of anything from the past…just be honest to yourself,” said Aamer.

Al-Ansari also added that she enjoyed meeting someone who strove to do something that they believe in. “Good for her for being one of the few Qatari women to ever publish a book,” Al-Ansari said. “We have to give her credit for that.”

Al Maria said that she hopes to be part of many more conversations with the student body in the coming days: “I hope that I get to encourage people to write, become journalists and also film – anyone who wants to do things.”