Sand Queen

This is a very important book in that it gives insight to what its like to be a woman on both sides of  a war. Both the American soldiers and the civilians treat the character Kate distinctly because of her gender. It also questions the morality of American soldiers who drag away innocent men to prison. Another issue is paranoia. The character Kate expresses the fear of being surrounded by the women who come to the camp to ask about their men, especially because her team leaves her alone with no one to aid her in case something went wrong. Kate talks about not knowing when one of the women will turn out to be a "lunatic" and shoot her. Similarly the civilians feel a distrust towards the soldiers because of the brute attacks on the men and unclear request. Most of the civilians do not speak English and cannot understand what the soldiers want. In one Instance Naema describes a moment where soldiers are yelling commands and a frightened driver, who does not speak English, ends up running over a family due to a nervous miscalculated maneuver. Kate mentions having to search women, and in instance she talks about how unsettling it is for the civilian woman to to he handled in such a way. Benedict writes. "And she still has to deal with the fact that I'm a soldier, and "friendly" is not what soldiers do. She could leave friendly little me one minute and get shot someone who looks like me the next." (Benedict, 37)