Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The Greater Freedom summary
Alya Mooro
Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes
Listen to the first key idea
Key idea 1 of 8
3.7 (21 ratings)
23 mins
8 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Greater Freedom about?
The Greater Freedom (2019) chronicles one British-Egyptian woman’s struggle to forge her own identity from the two cultures that raised her. Using stories from her own background, detailed research, and interviews with fellow women of the Arab diaspora, author Alya Mooro examines issues including sexuality, Islam, beauty standards, and immigration. She ultimately finds that there is freedom in choosing to exist in-between established tropes of culture, nationality, and identity.
About the Author
Alya Mooro is a British-Egyptian author and journalist who has contributed on topics of culture, beauty, and fashion to publications including Grazia, Refinery29, and The Telegraph. Using social media and her blog as platforms, she has come to embody the millennial third culture kid: sophisticated, introspective, and opinionated.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 8
As an Arab girl growing up in Britain, Alya felt caught between two cultures.
Growing up, Alya often felt defined by her otherness, rather than her own unique personality traits.
In predominantly white Britain, people of color are often subject to lazy caricature. That’s why people who aren’t white are often confused with other people from the same background. For example, the British media has mistakenly used a photo of the Belgian footballer Lukaku in stories about grime artist Stormzy.
Alya also personally experienced this. At school, she was often confused with other brown girls in her class: another Egyptian girl, as well as a girl who was half Pakistani and half Italian.
But Alya isn’t the only one who has struggled with proactively defining her identity. What “Arab” means has always been unclear: even UNESCO and Wikipedia list different numbers of Arab states. Many nationalities in the Middle East traditionally don’t consider themselves Arabs at all, a feeling shared by Egyptians too.
Diaspora Arabs have had to define their identity in a new way, though. In the melting-pot of London, surrounded by so many other nationalities, Arab identity has crystallized. Alya’s Middle Eastern neighbors and her own family bonded over their similarities, in contrast to the white, British norm.
But even if Alya and her friends identify as Arab, that doesn’t mean there’s a place for them. Arab girls growing up in the UK are often forced to choose between identifying as white or black. This happens in highly segregated schools, as well as on official forms, where “Arab” often isn’t an option.
Looking for role models, she observed that mainstream media doesn’t portray realistic versions of Arab characters. For instance, while representation has gotten better since 9/11, it’s only because there are more stories about terrorism – and Arabs are relegated to playing terrorists.
A study that analyzed television shows in 2015 and 2016 showed that 92 percent of scripted shows had no season regulars of Middle Eastern origins. Of the ones that did, 78 percent appear as terrorists, agents, soldiers, or tyrants, and 67 percent spoke with an accent.
This is especially harmful for children, who see only distorted versions of themselves reflected in the media. Without good role models, kids can become listless, and potentially even perform the stereotype. If society expects Arab children to be angry, it’s a lot easier to actually become that way.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Greater Freedom?
Key ideas in The Greater Freedom
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Who should read The Greater Freedom
- Modern women reckoning with their conservative upbringing
- Anyone who has ever felt self-conscious about their appearance
- Anyone whose family is more religious than they are
Categories with The Greater Freedom
Books like The Greater Freedom
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers