Hot Summer Read: Inside the Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin
Our second Hot Summer Read for 2005 is
Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Ladin
(Warner Books), which is now out in trade paperback. As a young woman in her native Geneva, she married Yeslam bin Ladin, a wealthy Saudi Arabian who seemed to embrace Western ways. They went to college in California and traveled in Europe. But when Yeslam took his bride home to Saudi Arabia, Carmen got the shock of her life. She couldn't be seen outside the house without a male guardian, or without being covered from head to toe in stifling black wool. She wasn't present at her own marriage ceremony (other men weren't allowed to see her face). And her husband began to change.
In this truly courageous book, Carmen bin Ladin takes readers on a moving journey into the heart of Saudi Arabia and its culture. She had the finest couture gowns from Paris and boxes of fine jewelry, but she wasn't even allowed to walk across the street to visit a neighbor. She details the unraveling of her marriage and her desperation to escape Saudi Arabia for her daughters' sake. She also tells what it was like to be the sister-in-law of
Osama bin Laden, and gives some interesting insights into his personality. The book reads quickly, like an issue of People magazine, but this fascinating story will stay with you for a long time.
Our second Hot Summer Read for 2005 is
