12 Books to Read If You Loved Hidden Figures

For years, New York Times journalist Katherine Zoepf traveled across the Middle East for work. On her journeys from one Arab nation to another, she collected stories of young women who dared to defy expectations and excelled at it. Excellent Daughters explores the roles of women in five Arab countries, each with different societal norms and laws, and the girls who — in the face of religious and political barriers — choose to break the rules and create their own roles, delaying domestic responsibility to seek education, independence, and freedom.