Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam, by Zainab Salbi
I don’t often tell you to do something. Sure, I may suggest this or recommend that but I can’t recall the last time I told you to do something. Today, I am telling you. Read this book.
From the bn.com site:
Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to serve as Saddam Hussein’s personal pilot, her family often forced to spend weekends with Saddam where he watched their every move. As a palace insider, Zainab offers a singular glimpse of what it is like to come of age under a dictator and provides an intimate portrait of the man she was taught to call “uncle.” She watched as Saddam pitted friends, spouses, and even children against each other to compete for his approval. She was sent to donate her mother’s jewelry to one of the world’s richest men, asked to erase her memory as she heard of crimes she was not supposed to hear of, and witnessed her mother hiding her tears lest it upset Saddam. Her mother eventually sent Zainab to America for an arranged marriage, to spare her from Saddam’s growing affection, but the marriage intended to save her turned out to be another world of tyranny and abuse.
Despite extraordinary psychological challenges, Zainab started over. She forged a new identity as a champion of female victims of war, dedicating her life to speaking out on behalf of oppressed women around the world. But until now, Zainab has never told this very personal tale. In this intimate portrait, she reveals the tyrant through the eyes of a child, a secretly rebellious teenager, an abused wife, and ultimately a professional woman coming to terms with the horror of secrets her mother revealed only on her deathbed. Through her ability to come to terms with the child she used to be and the dangerous world in which she managed to survive, Between Two Worlds emerges as a story of heroism like no other
Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International, the non-profit organization that seeks to empower women victims of war with job training, education and economic self-sufficiency.
Read this book. It will touch your heart and hopefully guide you to ask the question, “How can I help?”
Monday, June 30, 2008 at 10:06 am
It’s going on the list, thanks.
Have you read “Waiting for Snow in Havana”? I chose it for our online book club for July and have really been enjoying it. It’s a memoir of sorts, so when I started reading it I thought of you.