In the introduction, "rights and lives," abu-lughod outlines the themes she will be discussing in the rest of the book. she discusses the argument against the over-generalization "that mythical place where muslim women undifferentiated by nation, locality, or personal circumstance" and othering "lives that are totally separate and different from our own" of muslim women (26). in chapter 1, "do muslim women (still) need saving? " abu-lughod examines the case history of bibi ayisha in 2010 and thereby revisits some comments she made in the aftermath of the us invasion of afghanistan in. she explores the concept of humanitarian "saviorship" with the nineteenth-century missionary rhetorics of salvation.

now, of course, the quality and the seasonability of these winter dreams varied, but the stuff of them remained.   they persuaded dexter several years later to pass up a business course at the state university—his father, prospering now, would have paid his way—for the precarious advantage of attending an older and more famous university in the east, where he was bothered by his scanty funds. but do not get the impression, because his winter dreams happened to be concerned at first with musings on the rich, that there was anything merely snobbish in the boy. he wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people—he wanted the glittering things themselves. often he reached out for the best without knowing why he wanted it—and sometimes he ran up against the mysterious denials and prohibitions in which life indulges.

there you go thats what we are missing

that is true because that is something they fulfill for their work.

each morning i wrote my name

on the dusty cabinet, then crossed

the dining table in script, scrawled

in capitals on the backs of chairs,

practicing signatures like scales

while mother followed squirting

linseed from a burping can

ae4