How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
Today we are so used to the idea of Egypt as "Arab" that it seems unimaginable that Egyptians ever thought of themselves as anything else. In fact, I made this assumption myself when I first began writing this memoir. It was only when my own discordant memories failed to make sense that I was compelled to look more carefully into the history of our Arab identity. (10)
Part of Ahmed's journey involves an investigation into "Arabness." However, this probing into the origins of the concept makes her feel a bit like a traitor to her fellow Arabs, like she's trying to undermine the thing that unifies them all. But because of her unique experience in Egypt—living in a multicultural society—she has a hard time accepting a pan-Arabic label that erases the wonderful complexity of her ethnic and social identity.
To outsiders, too, her identity has been flattened: she's no longer Egyptian, only Arab. It doesn't seem reasonable to her to have to leave behind all that she really is to accept a political label.
Quote #2
Egyptians, for instance, might, with equal accuracy, define themselves as African, Nilotic, Mediterranean, Islamic, or Coptic. Or as all, or any combination of, the above. Or, of course, as Egyptian: pertaining to the land of Egypt. (11)
Here, in a nutshell, is why Ahmed resists the Arab label. She feels that it reduces her rich cultural heritage in dangerous ways. To accept this designation is to embrace a false political identity imposed by outsiders and to deny who she properly is. It's a situation that becomes more intolerable to her as time goes by, especially when she's in the United States and is confronted with how other people perceive her.
Quote #3
I had grown up, I came to see, in a world where people, or at any rate my father, had not merely admired European civilization but had probably internalized the colonial beliefs about the superiority of European civilization. My mother, who always distinctly kept herself at a distance from Europeans and their ways and who always also explicitly cherished and honored her own heritage, never became suspect in my mind for having had a colonized consciousness in the way that my father did. (25)
Ahmed finds herself in an awkward position. After years of admiring European culture, she realizes that she's swallowed the rhetoric of colonial domination to the point that she has rejected her own society and cultural preferences. She's bought into the belief that Egyptian culture is just not as cool or advanced as Britain's.
It's a painful realization, too, because Ahmed spent a lot of emotional energy opposing everything her mother stood for—including a strong allegiance to her ethnic identity. Ahmed now understands that she's been undervaluing an important part of herself this whole time—and at the suggestion of outsiders.