Product Description

On September 11th 2001, Carmen Bin Ladin heard the news on the radio that the Twin Towers had been struck. She instinctively knew that her brother-in-law was involved in these horrifying acts of terrorism, and her heart went out to America. She also knew that her life and the lives of her family would never be the same again. In 1974 Carmen, half Swiss and half Persian, married into the Bin Laden family and found herself inside a complex and vast clan, part of a society that at that point she neither knew nor understood. Determined to protect her daughters from the inevitable restrictions within a society riddled with hypocrisy and contradiction, in 1985 Carmen moved back to her home country, Switzerland. Carmen's story takes us inside one of the most powerful, secretive and repressive kingdoms in the world and the Bin Laden family's role within it, and she is one of the few women to have acquired, through her husband, intimate knowledge of the inner workings of this society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #304051 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'If you want to beat Osama, you've got to start by listening to Carmen' - Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times 'A searing indictment of a society and a family perverted by fanaticism ... a terrifying insight into the psychology of Al-Qaeda.' - Times

Times
'A searing indictment of a society and a family perverted by fanaticism ... a terrifying insight into the psychology of Al-Qaeda.'

About the Author
Carmen Bin Ladin lives in Switzerland with her three daughters.

Customer Reviews

An Exceptional Read
This book is truly amazing. Carmen gives a great review on how life is really like within the Bin Lardin family. I admirer her courage upon her journey in Saudi Arabia.
My heart whet out to the family especially after September the 11th.
She had to make a huge choice when taking her daughters out of Saudi Arabia , however I truly believe she made the right choice.
This book is worth every penny.

Eloquent and Timely
I reccommend this book to anyone wanting a readable introduction to understanding the nature of Saudi Arabia, Wahabbi islam, and the society that produced Osama bin Laden, and, in her final chapter, the danger that now facces the West. Carmen bin Ladin, Osama's former sister-in-law, writes of her curtailed and limited life during her marriage into the bin-Ladin clan with the depth of understanding of a woman who is descended from and knows two worlds
- the european/american (post-)christian West and islamic Iran - and has spent a considerable part of her life at the heart of a third, wahabbi Saudi Arabia.

Women in Saudi Society
Carmen was born in Switzerland and had been brought up with western values. However, in 1974 she married into the Bin Laden family and her life completely changed. As penetrating Saudi culture is difficult as it is one of the most powerful, secretative and repressive kingdoms, this book provides a unique insight of Women in Saudi Society and gives us a chance to appreciate their mentality. It also makes the reader appreciate what freedom means, something that most of us take for granted. Saudi society is so different, you might as well be describing another planet or universe.