Inside the kingdom
Subtitle: my life in Saudi Arabia
By: Carmen Bin Ladin
Publisher: Warner Books
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Subjects: Bin Ladin, Carmen; Women -- Saudi Arabia -- Biography
Genres: Biography
Other titles: My life in Saudi Arabia
Work titles: Voile déchiré.
Description: "On September 11, 2001, Carmen Bin Ladin heard the news 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 daughters would never be the same again." "In 1974 Carmen, half-Swiss and half-Persian, married into the Bin Laden family. She was young and in love, an independent European woman about to join a complex clan and a culture she neither knew nor understood. In Saudi Arabia, she was forbidden to leave her home without the head-to-toe black abaya that completely covered her. Her face could never be seen by a man outside the family. And according to Saudi law, her husband could divorce her at will, without any kind of court procedure, and take her children away from her forever." "Carmen was an outsider among the Bin Laden wives, their closets full of haute couture dresses, their rights so restricted that they could not go outside their homes - not even to cross the street - without a chaperone. The author takes us inside the hearts and minds of these women - always at the mercy of the husbands who totally control their lives, and always convinced that their religion and culture are superior to any other. As Carmen tells of her struggle to save her marriage and raise her daughters to be freethinking young women, she also describes this family's ties to the Saudi royal family and introduces us to the ever loyal Bin Laden brothers, including one particular brother-in-law she was to encounter - Osama." "In 1988, in Switzerland, Carmen Bin Ladin separated from her husband and began one of her toughest battles: to gain the custody of her three daughters. Now, with her memoir, she dares to pull off the veils that conceal one of the most powerful, secretive, and repressive countries in the world - and the Bin Ladin family's role within it."--BOOK JACKET.
Table of contents: title: 9/11; title: A secret garden; title: Falling in love; title: My Saudi wedding; title: America; title: Life with the Bin Ladens; title: The patriarch; title: Life as an alien; title: Two mothers, two babies; title: My own chief inmate; title: The brothers; title: 1979; title: Yeslam; title: Little girls; title: A Saudi couple; title: Sisters in Islam; title: Princes and princesses; title: Leaving Saudi Arabia