Travel Writing In Kathleen Jamie's Essay 'Shia Girls'

The editors of our book stated, “Travel writing produced places that could be thought of as barren, empty, unleveled … [and] needful of European influence and control” (319). Meanwhile, Kathleen Jamie’s essay “Shia Girls’ is a piece of travel writing that produced an idea of Pakistan for her Western readers. The keyword in the editor 's’ description of travel writing is “control,” both generally and for Pakistan. Before reading Jamie’s essay, Pakistan seemed an “empty” place for me and probably for most Americans. In our minds, when we think about Pakistan or Afghanistan, we think of terrorists or, as Jamie worries her Scottish neighbors might think, “All Afghans were terrorists? All we got on the news was anthrax and bombs and bin Laden”(6). Reading Jamie’s essay, however, you get a whole different perspective mainly with the women and how they act and what their insights on Western ideas and lifestyles. …show more content…
Jaime including the letter in her writing, shows the importance of Rashida’s being is to her, she gives her a primary insight on how Shia girls work. The sisters are also show how controlled they are by the mean they 're, “ A baby! For one year she did not look at me” one part of the mockery portrayed by one of the sisters husband. This goes to show how at that particular moment that some Shia girls start to see the Western life and it 's doesn 't look as bad. Throughout the writing, while showing their reactions to Jamie herself and her life, they show how a shia girl can kind of ease up on their own ways of