On page 130, Ghada Karmi describes her grandparents house in Damascus including the kitchen and adjacent toilet and then recalls information about her childhood bathrooms in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem her house had two bathrooms, one that her family used and another which was used by Fatima. This information made me wonder why Fatima used her own toilet, whether it was because of class separation, some form of racism, or just out of convenience. However after a fair amount of searching I have not been able to find any information relating to class differences etc.

From page 133 talking about her mother's education, "As was the custom, they only had an elementary education, enough to read the Quran and be able to write in a rudimentary way." So I am curious, what changed from the time her mother went to school to when Siham did, in terms of the amount of education aloud for women. I haven't been able to find out what changed in education, information has  been very hard to find due to present standings of Israel/Palestine.

 Starting on page 31 and continuing on until page 33, Karmi talks about women's organizations both in small scale ie: Jerusalem Women's Organizations and the Arab Women's Congress.
According to Fleischmann, the first official organized women's movement in Palestine happened in wake of what is known as the Wailing Wall incidents of 1929. The Wailing Wall incidents refers to a series demonstrations which were between the Palestinians and Jews over access to the Western Wall. The rioting became more violent and due to this, 133 Jews and 110 Arabs were killed in one week.
On October 26th of 1929, more than 200 Palestinian women met in Jerusalem, as the Palestine Arab Women's Congress these women pledged to "support all resolutions addressing the national problem and executive." The problem being gender consciousness.

By 1938 the Jerusalem's Arabs Women's Association (known as AWA) split in two becoming both the AWA and the Arab women's Union (AWU). Though it is unknown exactly why the group split, it is believed to have been at least partially due to Husayni-Nashashibi rivalry, as well as differences between conservative and progressive ways of dressing etc. Despite the split, many of the women continued to work together.

Because of the long standing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the efforts of groups such as the  AWA have become muted. It is unknown to me whether either the AWA or AWU survives today, but the existence of these organizations, has made room for other similar associations such as the Arab Women Organization which works towards achieving solidarity and education services for women.

As a woman I think that it is very important to be aware of such associations, despite our differences all women are burdened with the same struggle for equality, this struggle can be what ties us together. This book is so insightful because it is from a perspective that is not heard from very often, what I find most interesting is that beyond expectations, the author doesn't seem all that different. The western world has a way of dehumanizing the middle east which makes us think that we can't relate to their causes, but to my their motives and story is really comprehensible.

Sources:

 Fleischmann, Ellen L. "The Emergence of the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1929-39."
         Journal of Palestine Studies Spring 2000: 16-32. Web.

Sela, Avraham. "The "Wailing Wall" Riots (1929) As A Watershed In The Palestine Conflict."
        The Muslim World January-April 1994: 1-2. Web.