Letters from Palestine by Pamela Olson Read Free Book Online Page A

workplace; body
image and beauty ideals; Palestinian immigration; and women in
Islam. As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Arar will be moving to
Jordan in 2009 to study peace and conflict resolution. There, she
plans to film her second documentary as well as research domestic
violence in Jordan and water conditions in local Palestinian
refugee camps. In the future, Arar plans to pursue a law degree in
an effort to promote human rights both domestically and
internationally.
     
    * * *
     
    One of the deepest pleasures of working on
this book has been the kind and depth of correspondence that has
sometimes developed between some of our contributors and me during
and especially after working with them on their stories. What
begins, of necessity, with a rather formal invitation on my part to
consider writing a piece for the book may gradually morph into a
more personal exchange of letters and, sometimes, a real, if
virtual, friendship, then blossoms, occasionally quite
unexpectedly, as our correspondence continues even after their
stories have been put to bed.
    So it was with Rawan Arar, a young and very
gifted graduate student from Texas. Anna Baltzer had suggested her
to me as a possible candidate for our book, so in early October
2008, I wrote Rawan a brief note asking her if she would be
interested. She was and indeed expressed some enthusiasm for the
project, which was, of course, gratifying.
    Our exchanges over the next couple of months
were brief, infrequent and pretty much routine, but in January
2009, having noted that she lived in Austin, I mentioned to Rawan
that I expected to be visiting my daughter in San Antonio that
spring and suggested perhaps we could meet. She replied that she
would be delighted to do so.
    After that, our correspondence seemed to
open up quite a bit and became more frequent as we exchanged more
information about our interests, backgrounds, and involvement in
Palestinian issues. At one point, after Rawan asked me how I had
got into this work, I wound up writing her a fairly lengthy
account, some of which found its way, after a bit of editing, into
the introduction to this book. Shortly after that, Rawan wrote a
long letter of her own, which began this way:
     
    Dr. Ring, Kenneth, Ken, who knows . . .
maybe Kenny is next. What do you prefer to be called? I’m torn
between treating you like a professor or my new best friend. I’ve
come to really enjoy our correspondence. In the hopes of attracting
writers for Letters from Palestine , I find myself talking
about you all the time. That, coupled with writing you, and your
inspiring dedication to human rights/Palestine, has made me feel
very close to you. Thanks for always taking the time to write
me.
     
    Over the next few months, we would write when
we could, but Rawan was always very busy with her work at school
and with a miscellany of extracurricular projects, and ditto for me
with my own activities, so we could often only write quick notes to
each other. But the warmth in our correspondence remained.
    Fortunately, my trip to Texas came off over
the long Easter weekend in 2009, but turned out to involve a big
family reunion with all three of my kids and all four of my
grandchildren in attendance. Nevertheless, Anna and I were able to
break away on Easter morning to spend a couple of hours over brunch
not only with Rawan but with her mother as well, because Rawan’s
family actually lived in San Antonio. It was an absolute joy to
meet Rawan face-to-face. She was just as lively, warm, and
quick-witted as her letters had led me to imagine, and full of
passion and dedication about the work she was planning to do. This
mainly involved making a documentary about Palestinian and Iraqi
refugee women in Jordan where Rawan was heading during the summer
of 2009 as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, once she finished
studying for and taking the LSAT exams for law school.
    We want to meet again, too, if not in San
Francisco, then, well, maybe in Jordan. We’ll