Book description
Mayada was born into a powerful Iraqi family. One grandfather fought
alongside Lawrence of Arabia. The other is acclaimed as the first true
Arab nationalist. Her uncle was Prime Minister for nearly forty years,
her mother an important politician. When Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath
party seized power, and instituted his reign of terror, Mayada found
herself alone in Baghdad, a divorced parent of two children, earning a
meagre living printing brochures. Until one morning in August 1999 she
was summarily arrested and dragged to the notorious Baladiyat Prison,
falsely accused of printing anti-government propaganda.
There she was thrown into a cell with 17 'shadow women'. Like
latter-day Sherezades, these women passed their days, while waiting
for the next interrogation and torture session, telling each other
their stories. They were eager to hear Mayada's stories of her
privileged former life, of the history of her proud family, of kings
and queens, of meetings with Saddam himself.
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.
Jean Sasson is the author of the worldwide bestsellers
Princess
,
Daughters of
Arabia,
Desert Royal
and
Mayada, Daughter of Iraq.
She lived in Saudi Arabia for twelve years before moving back to the
USA in 1990. She has recently returned to live in the Middle East.
