A truthful glimpse of the Saudi women s thoughts, emotions, aspirations and dreams will be open to the world to read.

Nimah Nawwab the Saudi internationally acclaimed poet and photographer, author of The Unfurling, is currently collecting essays and poems by women of Arabia for the first-ever Saudi women anthology.

This anthology will serve as a mirror that reflects the diversity we are blessed with in the evolving world we live in, said Nawwab.

Where Prayer Measures Time: Women of Saudi Arabia Speak (working title) seeks to provide a link between cultures, creating a venue for women to express their views on current issues and a chance for readers to gain understanding of life in Saudi Arabia on a more personal level than the media can provide.

With the broadening of the seas between the West and the Islamic world and the increased attention on Saudi society worldwide, Saudi women have been under the scrutiny of foreign microscopes. Hopefully, the anthology will provide a true representation of the variety of women living within Saudi Arabia and presenting their feelings, thoughts, aspirations and lives through their own words.

The voices that criticize us tend to be louder than our own; however we should not sit back and allow the world to steal our lives away from us by speaking for us in the condescending tone that they so casually employ. said Hana a al Moaibed a young Saudi girl.

The anthology is the latest cultural bridging project for the internationally renowned author. Nawwab heads the all-woman multi-national anthology team which includes highly experienced academics, writers, poets, translation specialists, and editors.

This anthology of women s writing from Saudi Arabia will allow English-speaking readers to know a world that most have only imagined-inaccurately, said Pit Pinegar, who has been selected as the Poetry editor of the anthology. Pinegar had lived in Saudi Arabia in the 80s. Pinegar s latest collection of poems, The Physics of Transmigration, is nominated for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize.

This is a golden opportunity for women to speak up and be heard. Most of us were waiting for a long time and only now, through the anthology, this opportunity is now realized, said Amilia Noori, a Persian/Canadian. Noori, brought up in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, is contributing to the anthology. Living in the Kingdom is a rich experience that women especially need to write about and share with the world.

The 20 topics covered in the anthology reflect the diverse issues that women deal with day in and day out such as; identity, freedom, customs, traditions, the veil, faith, marriage, divorce, polygamy, love, aging, bodily changes, choices, obligations, motherhood, childhood to loneliness and isolation.

Our team has put in a lot of thought into the choice of topics so that they reflect vital aspects of life in Saudi Arabia and appeal to submitters and readers. We seek to reflect a balanced reflection of thoughts on the sought after topics, said the poet. We need to address issues together and work hand in hand towards reflecting our concerns, struggles, aspirations and our lives.

In my opinion, any woman that is given the opportunity to live in Saudi Arabia will carry with her a newfound understanding for what it means to be an individual, because although on the surface we may all look the same in photographs and television images that are projected to the outside world as that silent woman cloaked in black, we (like any we ) are an assorted collection of I s , said Moaibed. It is about time that as Saudi women we are given the opportunity to express our voices and let the world know that we can speak for ourselves and as individuals.

Since the announcement of the anthology project late November 2005, the team has been receiving inquiries within the first two hours after their online announcement on www.theunfurling.com. Currently, the team has been receiving daily submissions.

Inquiries included those interested in France, Canada, the US and Saudi Arabia. However, submissions must be sent in English if it is written in Arabic along with the original Arabic.

The team is currently looking at several international women s charitable organizations to donate a percentage of the sales of the finished volume to.

Submissions of written pieces by women living or have lived in Saudi Arabia are accepted until March 30th. Inquiries on the anthology are being accepted at - womenofarabia@gmail.com