Although I returned to the Bedouin souk more than once, hoping to see Malaak, I was unsuccessful. I never again saw Malaak, the feisty Bedouin woman who so loved the life she was living. I'm convinced that she never experienced one moment of doubt that she was a lucky woman who had lived a wonderful life. For that I am glad.
I never again heard from Nayam, although when I told her story to Dr. Feteih, he was kind enough to use his position as head of the hospital to call for her medical records so that we might discover her history. I was devastated to learn that after giving birth to three more handicapped children, Nayam was diagnosed with cervical cancer and passed away one year later at the hospital. I had no way of finding out what happened to her greatly beloved "left behind" children, all who were battling serious medical issues.
Asma and I spoke several times after her husband married her cousin. Asma never had any other children with Khalid and found herself divorced one morning after learning that Khalid had married for a third time. Thankfully, Khalid allowed Asma to keep her daughter to raise until she turned thirteen, at which time he took his daughter to live in his household. Fortunately, he did allow Asma generous visitation rights, which amounted to an unusual victory in Saudi Arabia. Asma was such a sweet beauty that even after being divorced, she had a number of offers to marry wealthy and influential men. The last time we spoke, Asma was considering three different offers of marriage. She also decided to continue her education.
After residing in Saudi Arabia for five years I met a Saudi princess who fulfilled my dream of meeting a Saudi woman who was willing to fight for change. I told her life story in the international bestsellers, Princess, Princess Sultana's Daughters and Princess Sultana's Circle. The princess and I lived through other exciting adventures not revealed in the books about her life. With her assistance, I once disguised myself as a man to go undercover in Bangkok, Thailand, where I witnessed an auction of young girls into sex slavery, some of whom were likely taken back to Saudi Arabia. The princess and I wanted to know everything possible about that evil practice, hoping that somehow we might play a role in stopping the sex-slave trade into her country. To our immense sorrow, we were unsuccessful.
I was still living in Saudi Arabia when Osama bin Laden returned from the Soviet war in Afghanistan war to a hero's welcome. The reactions of Saudis left no doubt that Osama bin Laden was greatly loved and highly respected by most Saudi citizens. Little could the Saudis know that one day he would be a name well-known by nearly everyone on the planet. And I could have never guessed that I would one day be the biographer for Osama's first wife, the lovely and sweet Najwa, and their fourth-born son, the very brave and honorable Omar. Najwa was a young wife and Omar a small child during the years I was a young woman happily living in their country.
I had many adventures with my husband Peter, an international man of great flair who also spoke a number of languages fluently. Since Peter had been born and raised to age eight in Alexandria, Egypt, he and I traveled to the country of his birth on many occasions. As a frequent visitor to Egypt, I came to know and love the Egyptian people, as well as the bustling city of Cairo and the tranquil city of Alexandria. Over the years I became aware of the radical religious movements sweeping that nation, often wondering where those movements would take Egypt. Now I know the answer to that question. Egypt has helped to lead the surprising Arab Spring, an entire region's determined quest for freedom.
Although Peter and I separated, and later divorced, we remained exceptionally close friends. I left Saudi Arabia but continued my world travels, for the travel bug had bitten. How could I have guessed that after twelve years of high excitement as a resident of ultra-conservative, yet exotic country of Saudi Arabia, I had not yet lived the most dramatic moments of my life?
From Saudi Arabia I traveled into Beirut during a time in which travel to Lebanon was forbidden for Americans. Kindly Lebanese customs officials agreed not to stamp my passport so that I might enter their beautiful country without repercussions from my own. My intense experiences in that country included visits to orphanages, where I met children who had lost entire families to the Lebanese civil war, visits to hospitals where critically wounded men and women lay wounded with little hope, and a searing visit to the Palestinian Shatila refugee camp where I met an elderly Palestinian woman who inspired my historical fiction novel, Ester's Child, soon to be re-released with the title, Lost in Jerusalem.
Even after Lebanon, there was much to come. Several years later, I was to spend time in Israel, both on the western Jewish side and on the eastern Arab side. There were many nail-biting moments as I traveled from the Jewish sector to the Arab section. Tensions arose from every quarter. While visiting western Jerusalem, my sweetheart Jack and I were verbally attacked and threatened by conservative Jews. After traveling to the eastern Arab side, small children threw stones at our Arab driver's cab, compelling us to hastily flee the area. The land of Jewish Israel and of Arab Palestine grew only increasingly more dangerous.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August, 1990, I happened to be in the United States. I quickly arranged travel from Atlanta to London, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia where I interviewed fleeing Kuwaitis. I was invited to visit the city of Taif, where the Kuwaiti government-in-exile was established. There I was granted an interview with the emir as well as the crown prince. Thankfully, I was able to obtain the cooperation of the Kuwaiti government and the Kuwaiti people so that I was privy to their first-hand accounts of war and death. Those interviews and experiences became the number two New York Times bestseller, The Rape of Kuwait.
I also met Kuwait's wealthiest princess, the well-respected Souad al Sabah, wife of the only remaining son of Kuwait's longest-reigning emir, Mubarak the Great. I found Princess Souad to be a beautiful and fascinating woman, a highly regarded Arab poet, a mother devoted to her children, and a woman who was previously a great supporter of Saddam Hussein. She even wrote poems flattering Saddam, calling him the hope of the Arab people. Her palace was one of the few al-Sabah palaces not torched by Saddam's men, which triggered many hurtful Kuwaiti rumors over the reason her palatial home was spared.
Shortly after Iraq was expelled from Kuwait, I was invited to travel to Kuwait City on the Kuwaiti government sponsored "Freedom Flight." While in Kuwait I met with returning royals, including the Kuwaiti crown prince whom I had previously interviewed. The country was considered so volatile that the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States and his invited guests planned for only a one-day visit. However, I slipped away from the party, did not re-board the plane, and remained in Kuwait for a month.
That month was one of the most exciting of my life. During my stay in Kuwait I lived through endless thrilling moments, including celebrations with Kuwaiti freedom fighters, a visit to the tent cities in which thousands of people were stranded between Iraq and Kuwait, and my entry into Iraq, an act forbidden by the American military. My visit to the "Highway of Death" with my volunteer driver, a young banker by profession named Saud A. al-Mutawa, shocked my senses. I waited with Kuwaiti mothers and fathers when the buses filled with Kuwaiti prisoners from Iraq were returned to Kuwait City. I was the only writer invited by the Kuwaiti government to meet with the women housed in a specially designated government building, all of whom had been brutally raped and impregnated by Iraqi soldiers. Most of the women were pleading for abortions, but the Kuwaiti government disappointed them by saying no.
In the spring of 1998, after reading that Saddam Hussein was no longer allowing American journalists or aid workers to enter Iraq, I wrote a letter to him requesting that he make an exception to grant me a visit visa. (I knew that no government official would have the courage or audacity to grant the author of The Rape of Kuwait permission and a visa to enter the country. I realized that I would have to go to the man who ruled all of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. I did, and my plan worked.) To my joyful surprise, I received a telephone call from Saddam Hussein's offices in Baghdad saying that I was welcome to visit Iraq.
A
fter traveling to New York to meet with the Iraqi officials attached to the United Nations, I was quickly provided with a visa and a letter stating that I should be given every courtesy. Since the U.S. led embargo did not allow flights into Iraq, I traveled to Amman, Jordan, rented a car and hired a Jordanian driver. I traveled twelve hours across the desert and went into Iraq alone, without knowing anyone. I spent the next three weeks visiting hospitals, women's organizations, and private homes.
My life was changed forever by that trip. One sweet benefit was that I met a woman who would become one of my dearest friends, a woman the world now knows as Mayada al-Askari, featured in the book, Mayada, Daughter of Iraq.
Other compelling sagas were in my future. I had the sad privilege of hearing first-hand the cruelties Saddam's regime inflicted upon the Kurdish people. This came after meeting Ra'ad al-Askari who introduced me to his baby sister, Joanna, who had lived through the deadly and ghastly chemical attacks upon an entire people. Joanna's story was told to the world in the book Love in a Torn Land: One Woman's Daring Escape from Saddam's Poison Gas Attacks on the Kurdish People of Iraq.
Yet another intriguing adventure unfolded when I came to know Omar and Zaina bin Laden, as well as Omar's mother, Najwa Bin Laden. Their stories are shared in the book Growing Up Bin Laden, the only book that reveals personal stories about Osama and his family.
After hearing the terror tales of the Taliban and of their dedicated assault upon the women of Afghanistan, I was eager to explore the true life story of an Afghan woman. That story arrived in the form of an amazing Afghan woman named Maryam Khail. Maryam is one of the boldest women one could meet, and her brave spirit is amazing to behold, told in the book For the Love of a Son, One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child.
Now looking back upon my life, I feel a strong desire to share the stories of the fascinating people I have known, and the exhilarating journeys I have lived. At this moment the excitement is building at the thought of reliving those days of anticipation and drama.
In American Chick in Saudi Arabia, I have given you a little taste of the beginning of my life of adventure. There is much more to come and I'm hoping that you get to share many other adventures with me.
Stay tuned!
Jean Sasson
For additional information about Jean Sasson and her books, including maps, timelines, glossaries, and key facts about Saudi Arabia, please visit the author's website: http://www.JeanSasson.com
Be sure to check out Jean's other e-books!
FOR THE LOVE OF A SON: One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child
As a little girl in Afghanistan, Maryam fought for equality and defied the second-class standing of women by pretending to be a boy. When her feisty spirit nearly cost her life, after a public act of rebellion against the invasion of Russia, Maryam is forced to flee to America. But her fresh start at life is short-lived as her arranged marriage to a violent Afghan leaves her with only one joy--the birth of her son. When she attempts to escape her brutal marriage, her husband steals their son away and takes him back to Afghanistan, a land torn by civil war and Taliban oppression. What follows is the stirring true story of one mother's struggle for justice, as she fights to be reunited with her son.
A New York Times bestseller, PRINCESS describes the life of Princess Sultana Al Sa'ud, a princess in the royal house of Saudi Arabia. Hidden behind her black veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband and her country.
Sultana tells of appalling oppressions, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations: thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the "women's room."
PRINCESS is a testimony to a woman of indomitable spirit and courage, and you will never forget her or her Muslim sisters.
Princess Sultana's Daughters (Book Two of the Princess Trilogy)
As second-generation members of the royal family who have benefited from Saudi oil wealth, Maha and Amani have known nothing but opulence and wealth from the moment of their birth. Yet, stilled by the unbearable restrictive lifestyle imposed on them, Maha and Amani react in equally desperate ways. "Sasson's sequel to Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil is another page-turner." — Publishers Weekly
Princess Sultana's Circle (Book Three of the Princess Trilogy)
With Princess Sultana's Circle, the extraordinary story of Princess Sultana continues. The forced marriage of Sultana's niece to a cruel and depraved older man, and Sultana's discovery of the harem of sex slaves kept by a royal cousin, makes this brave royal princess more determined than ever to fight the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia. Princess Sultana's cause is given an extra sense of urgency against the background of increased dissent against the Al Sa'uds, and the looming spectre of Islamic fundamentalism. But an extended family "camping trip" in the desert brings the luxury-loving Sultana and relatives closer to their nomadic roots, and gives her the strength to carry on the fight for women's rights in all Muslim countries. This book paints a horrifying reality for women of the desert kingdom. It is a haunting look at the danger of Saudi male dominance and the desperate lives of the women they rule.
GROWING UP BIN LADEN
Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
The world knows Osama bin Laden as the most wanted terrorist of our time. But people are not born terrorists, and bin Laden has carefully guarded the details of his private life — until now, when his first wife and fourth-born son break the silence to take us inside his strange and secret world. In spine-tingling detail, Jean Sasson tells their story of life with a man, whose growing commitment to violent jihad led him to move his wives and children from an orderly life to one of extreme danger, even choosing the teenage Omar to accompany him to the mountain fortress of Tora Bora.
For additional information about Jean Sasson and her books, please visit
http://www.JeanSasson.com
Jean Sasson, American Chick in Saudi Arabia
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