Audio Books | Chilling glimpse of Bin Laden family life
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/9809768.htm
When news that two jets had rammed the World Trade Center towers in New York reached Geneva, Switzerland, one woman in particular realized, to her horror, that she knew who likely was involved.
Her name was Carmen Bin Ladin, and her husband was one of Osama Bin Laden's 24 brothers. She had long since tried to sever her relationship with a family and a culture she found stifling, hypocritical and merciless. But she knew, at that moment, that "I would have to shepherd my children through the anguish they felt as their name became synonymous with evil, infamy and death."
She decided to write an account of her life among the Bin Ladins, Inside the Kingdom. Time Warner has recorded it unabridged (6.5 hours; $31.98 on CD) with Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo reading.
It is a chilling, fascinating glimpse behind the securely closed doors of privileged Saudi Arabian families, where the women are kept virtually prisoners in their own lavishly, if garishly, decorated homes.
Aghdashloo has a heavily accented voice - much like Carmen Bin Ladin's, whom I heard on an NPR program. Her tone and pace reflect Carmen's eloquence and obvious outrage.
Carmen, wealthy and privileged, half Swiss and half Persian, married Islam Bin Ladin in 1974. As students in California, they lived like Americans.
But soon they moved to Saudi Arabia. She recalled the first time she put on her abaya - the heavy veil that covered her head, face, body and hands, with only her feet sticking out. It felt oppressive. It imbued her with a sense of melancholy and apprehension.
Whenever she went out of the house - always chaperoned, of course - she had to wear it. At one point, she tripped over it and fell, but her driver couldn't help her up because no man was permitted to touch her.
She made constant blunders - speaking to a brother-in-law in public, thanking the servants.
It was when Carmen had daughters of her own that she realized she had to leave.
"I could not face the prospect that my daughters might grow up to become like the faceless, voiceless women I lived among," she writes. "Above all, I could not watch my daughters be denied what I valued most: freedom of choice."
Her life after that became even more horrifying. Although a Saudi man can divorce his wife for any reason simply by saying "I divorce you" three times in front of a witness, a woman must prove to a court that her husband has violated his religion. Apparently, adultery or abuse aren't reason enough.
She feared she would not be permitted to leave the country, but she managed it by simply never returning from a trip to their other home in Geneva.
Bin Ladin's book prompted me to listen to Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, by Jordan's Queen Noor, the former American Lisa Najeeb Halaby.
Audio Editions has recorded Leap of Faith unabridged (16 hours, $39.95 on cassette; $49.95 on CD). Queen Noor, reading the introduction, has dignity and a worldly aplomb. Actor Suzanne Toren, who reads the rest, is jarringly different and tends toward an annoying sharpness.
At age 26, Halaby met Jordan's King Hussein through her father. Within a year, she became Muslim and married him.
I wondered how she would navigate the changes in her life. But Jordan is a far cry from Saudi Arabia. Noor dressed in Western clothes and was an influential leader in her country.
Perhaps Noor, as a woman of privilege with an international presence, was spared some restrictions. But she never seems to chafe at cultural differences.
Then again, Noor's book is mostly an adoring portrait of her late husband. It's a fascinating look at historic and current events through her eyes, if not a particularly revealing personal memoir.
Noor would not have chafed at cultural differences. Her father was the son of a Syrian-Lebanese father, and an American mother. Lisa was not far removed from the Muslim world.