Donald Cole and Soraya Altorki are both professors of anthropology at the American University in Cairo, and each has independently pioneered ethnographic research in Saudi Arabia. Altorki is the author of Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior Among the Elite. Cole is the author of Nomads of the Nomads: The Al-Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter. Their previous collaborations include Arabian Oasis City: Transformation of 'Unayzah.