Product Description

Not only the story of a woman intimately connected to Iraq's cultured, ancient history, this book is a powerful witness to the terror and horror wrought by Saddam on the lives and souls of its ordinary citizens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53957 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Natalie Imbruglia, WORD
'Absolutely stunning, extremely powerful.'

Natalie Imbruglia, WORD
'Absolutely stunning, extremely powerful.'

From the Back Cover
Mayada Al-Askari was born into a powerful Iraqi family. When Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath party seized power, Mayada little imagined the devastation that it would wreak upon her life. But soon she found herself alone in Baghdad, a divorced mother of two, earning a meagre living printing brochures – until the morning in 1999 when she was arrested by Saddam's secret police and dragged to the notorious Baladiyat Prison, accused of producing anti-government propaganda.

There she was thrown into a cell already housing seventeen other ‘shadow women'. These women came from different backgrounds, but all shared the same fate: imprisonment and torture without trial, and the threat of execution. To block out the screams of other prisoners, like latter-day Scheherazades the shadow women told each other their stories. Mayada's tales of her privileged former life were a source of particular fascination, including her own encounters with Saddam himself.

Customer Reviews

Very Interesting
I found this book very interesting to read. Especially the episodes in the prison regarding the reasons' why Iraqi people were taken into prison.
Mayada life and aspects into the introduction of her family were excellent. I feel one needs to learn about the aspects and privelages a person has and how they deal with things their own way. The insight into the Sadam Hussian political system was interesting and very sad at times. This is just a small chapter in what went on in Iraq under sadam. It will be interesting to see how other people and families suffered in Iraq.
I found this book to be a smooth read. This was one of those hard to eplain books-that have a meaning that goes beyond certain adgenda's and political cruelty when playing games becomes normal for the people that give the pain. For the receiver it becomes the pain of leaving children, parents, siblings behind and getting roped into a political system that never seems to end.

Political and Sensationalism at Best !!!
Jean Sasson has produced a book which is very graphic and quite disturbing in parts, as to the life of those under the regime of Saddam Hussain. Mayada has continuity of circumstances and events with no holds barred. It conveys a sense of the ultimate macabre and evil that any human being can not even begin to understand. This is the first reading of a particular woman's life in either Iraq or Afghanistan, in being interested in the particular culture and lifestyle with regard to the teachings of the Q'uran. There is, as this book (Mayada),conveys, something sadly amiss, in the way human beings are treated and particularly women, being second class citizens, under those that see fit to treat their citizens as such in the name of Allah. Mayada is a compelling read and certainly puts a different light on the subject of those being holier than thou from the teachings of the Q'uran. Well worth reading, if only as a matter of interest or part of studies in humanity.

A Book That Makes You Think
This is a well-written true story about a woman called Mayada who lived in Iraq throughout the rule of Saddam Hussein. It vividly describes the privileged position Mayada had in a rich Iraqui family, and through this, how she went from being one of Saddam's 'favoured' to being thrown into one of his many torture prisons.

Despite the author being obviously pro-US throughout the book, it is very well written book and depicts Mayada's life with dignity and respect.

The only downfall of this book is that there are so many books on sale at the moment that are 'true stories' about people's plights in difficult situations. This book could be easily overlooked because of this, which is a great shame.