Monday, July 4, 2016: Chivvis Moore discusses her new memoir

Militarism, Feminism and Nationalism

First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust In God: An American Feminist in the Arab World

Chivvis Moore discusses her new memoir, First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust In God: An American Feminist in the Arab World.  Moore lived in the Middle East for 17 years, including three in Egypt, three in Syria, and 11 in Palestine.  She talks about what attracted her and what she learned about Muslim and Arab culture, volunteering as a medic in Jenin Refugee Camp immediately after the brutal siege of 2002, the impact of Western funding on the Palestinian women's movement, and how community helps people make it through intolerable situations.

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from Moore's website:
Since living in Brazil three years as a child, I have been drawn to live among people of other cultures, whether on a Native American reservation in Arizona, among African Americans in the Fillmore District in San Francisco before ”gentrification,” or in Arab communities in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. As an adult, I lived and worked 17 years in the Middle East —  3 years in Egypt, 2 in Syria, a year in Israel, where I taught Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel, and 11 years teaching at Birzeit University in the West Bank, returning to the US in 2008. I have earned my living as a journalist, a carpenter and general building contractor, an editor and researcher, and a teacher of English for Academic Purposes. I have worked with adults and youth establishing community newspapers in Native American, Latino and African American communities.  I now work with Zawaya, a non-profit organization that teaches and promotes the Arab arts, especially music, in the San Francisco Bay Area. I live in Oakland with my partner and my cat Nahar, born in Nazareth.

Chivvis Moore will be reading and discussing her book on Friday, July 8th at 6PM, Laurel Book Store, 1423 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 510-452-9232.

Click here to listen to entire show. 59:50 min.


Also on today's show:
Tribute to Pat Summitt
Cynthia Enloe on gender and militarism