Product Description

When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family and was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the family's clothes, he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a 'crime of honour' was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year and many more take place that we hear nothing about Miraculously, Souad survived rescued by the women of her village, who put out the flames and took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned, and abandoned by her family and community, it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed and to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage and fortitude and of one woman's determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices and which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22231 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 359 pages

From the Back Cover
When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one’s family – a dishonour punishable by death. This was her crime, and her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero.

Miraculously, Souad survived, rescued by the women of her village, although she suffered horrific burns. It was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled her to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day.

Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty that speaks of amazing courage and of one woman’s determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices that ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence.

‘The terrifying memoir of a young Palestinian woman … Her ordeal reveals the scandalous treatment of women that is the real human rights abuse in the West Bank’ Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Now lives in Europe. She is married with three children

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!
I couldn't put this book down! Literally! (I read it in one sitting.)

It is so easy for us to take our lives for granted, but books like this are a real eye-opener to the plight of abused women in other parts of the world. I only wish there were more books like this, from women brave enough to come forward and tell their stories.

burned alive
i read this book in two evenings i couldnt put it down. what a fantastic woman souad is she has come from the most appalling life and has survived horrors that no one should ever witness or live through.

Burned Alive - Souad
This Book is amazing, it shows the courage and desperation of Souad who was burnt alive by her brother-in-law because she had sex before marraige and became pregnant. In Souad's village it was a crime to have sex before marriage and was punishable by death, if she wasn't killed it would bring shame to her family. Souad's brother-in-law was sent to do the "honour" killing. He poured petrol on her face and set her alive. Souad had a very distressing life, the men in her village beat the woman and girls and Souad's father beat her, her sisters and mother but her brother was not. Men in the village were treated like gods and women were worthless. Many girls & women were killed in the village and Souad was one of them but she did survive.
Soaud was burt and left to die in a hospital nobody would help her only a women, Jacqueline who rescued her and took her to Europe. This is where Souad was helped and found love in her husband and her three children.
This book is 5 star rated, you just have to read it. Its one of those books that will stay with you forever and you wont want to put it down.