Doctor Qanta Ahmed dared to enter the land of Saudi Arabia. Although trained in the United States, her visa to remain had been denied. From Kennedy airport, she arrived in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. As a Muslin woman, she thought mostly of the privileges her status as a practicing doctor would provide — little of any trite annoyances caused by her Muslim religion. After all, she held multiple certifications: 1) internal medicine, 2) pulmonary disease, 3) critical-care medicine, 4) sleep-disorder medicine.
To her dismay, shock might be a more appropriate word, Dr. Ahmed crashed head-on into a male dominated society where women were looked upon as embodied “flesh” — “objects.” Every nook and cranny of society was controlled by men intending to keep women, thought to be inferior beings, in their place: the home.
As a Muslim, why had she not known of her collision course? Dr. Amed had migrated to America from England. Her parents had “transplanted there from a post-Partition India.” With the promise of a nice salary and free accommodations, she had been lured by a hospital in Riyadh,
In Saudi Arabia, many Muslim women follow a fastidious veiling of their bodies that literally swallows up their entire person. It is required by Sharia — Islamic Law. Now, Dr. Ahmed must veil herself accordingly. Regardless of whether a woman covers her face, in “Saudi Arabia, no woman can go anywhere in public without wearing an abbayah that covers at least the body and head hair.” The abbayah would be black, even during the intense summer heat. On the contrary, men wore white thobes (robes).
Dr. Ahmed offers that during her stay in Riyadh, she saw how ridiculously removed from any genuine understanding of Islam 
were the ludicrous mandates of Sharia Law: “women segregated from men, Saudis from non-Saudis, Muslims from non-Muslims.” Even a woman who openly held an allegiance to another religious belief, she must follow the fanatically strict interpretation of Sharia dress code.
Regis Schilken's stories reflect his search for meaning in a very human but frightening way. Three of his books have been published: The Oculi Incident, The Island Off Stony Point, and a third, You Know When was just recently released. …
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