Acknowledgements

THIS BOOK and series would not have been possible without the support and love of several people who were extremely generous with their time, comments, directions and encouragement. For all of them, we are sincerely grateful and are eternally indebted.

We will begin by expressing our appreciation to the amazing seven narrators of this series, Madeeha, Sahbaa, Hekmat, Khadija, Um Bassim, Um Jaber, and Um Said, and their families, for so generously sharing their stories and making us welcome in their homes.

We are grateful to our friend Shadia Al Sarraj for her friendship, remarkable support and encouragement.

We would like also to thank Peter Midgley and Mathew Buntin, the amazing editors at University of Alberta Press, who helped us throughout the process of writing by answering queries and providing support. A special thank you to Cathie Crooks for all her incredible support and to all the talented team at University of Alberta Press.

Sincere thanks to John Pilger, Wayne Sampey and the late Inga Clendinnen for their assistance, support and encouragement.

Several people have generously expended time and effort to read sections of our work and offered valuable advice. Professor Rosemary Sayigh deserves special thanks for her generosity in providing us with useful comments. Sincere thanks go to Rela Mazali for her comments on the work and editing skills. We are also grateful to Terry Rempel and Eóin Murray for reading and commenting on parts of the Introduction. Special thanks and unending gratitude to Andrew Karney for all his support, encouragement and friendship. We also would like to thank Wejdan Hamdan for helping in transcribing the stories. She has dedicated many hours in support of this project that she calls a labour of love and resistance.

Finally, thanks to our late parents, who never gave up hope that these narratives would be published.