Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World
By Alexandra Avakian
208 pages; Focal Point

"At times the traditional hijab is as necessary for my work as a passport or a camera," writes photojournalist Alexandra Avakian, a New York City native who has taken her camera deep inside Muslim communities from Somalia to Gaza, from Tajikistan to Dearborn, Michigan. Avakian's first photo collection, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, challenges and expands any ideas we might have had about Islamic society, offering insightful glimpses of embattled, oppressed, or happily ordinary lives.