Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam

I don't think you can make any clearer the cost war and tyranny has for the individual. Not only for the writer herself, but we get vivid portrayals of other people as well, and you can glimpse from the author's perspective how it impacts them.One of it's strongest points is how the author thinks of what she has gone through. It is deeply human that she lacks perspective of self. She asks in the book why the victims are not more open to talk about what has happened to them, why their culture holds them back. All the while answering the question herself, throughout the whole book she explains how she herself holds back from telling for various reasons what has happened to her, reasons which have nothing to do with culture at all. So at times she can explain clearly why and how there really isn't a cultural difference in reactions to certain events, but at other times it escapes her because some things we just don't want to see. In that, it really gives an insight into the psychology of war.Not that this was what I was expecting to gain from the book as she was from a privileged family. Don't read it if you're the type of person who gets upset by reading of the realities of war. Had I known she would detail such things before buying it I would probably not have bought it. Not that I'm trying to dissuade the sensitive reader.A very impactful book.

Very inspirational and a lot of heart in this book.

Great book could not put it down once I started reading it. This lady make you realise what a boring life you have had compared to things that have happened to her. Very inspiring and uplifting.

Having lived and worked in Baghdad around the time Zainab writes, it was fascinating to read her story. And a good and easy read it is too, though extremely harrowing in parts. You almost feel she is talking to you personally.

Good service, arrived on time in good conditionThe book its self is well worth the read and we as a nation are fortunate we can pray where and when we wantHeaven forbids it does not change

Excellent book well written. She is also an inspirational speaker.

Quite honestly I did not know about this book until I learned about it while reading NBC correspondent Don Teague's book  Saved by Her Enemy: An Iraqi Woman's Journey from the Heart of War to the Heartland of America . In the former the author wrote about a young Iraqui woman turned translator he helped save from certain death while she was employed helping Americans in her native country. BETWEEN TWO WORLDS:ESCAPE FROM TYRANNY;GROWING UP IN THE SHADOW OF SADDAM is a remarkable book written by an Iraqui woman herself. Unlike Teague's translator, who came from more humble beginnings, the author of this book was born into privilege, the daughter of Saddam Hussein's former personal pilot. You would not have expected to have such a woman end up championing the cause of many abused women. It took being raped by her husband of an arranged marriage to inspire the author to passionately start helping women like herself.As the book jacket informs us the author, Zainab Salbi, is the founder and president of Women for Women International, "a nonprofit organization providing women survivors to move from crisis to stability and build peace one woman at a time." Salbi is a very intelligent and highly educated woman holding degrees from George Mason University and the London School of Economics. She wrote the book in conjunction with Laurie Becklund, "an award-winning Los Angeles journalist and author...A former LOS ANGELES TIMES reporter, she wrote the first story about Salbi in 1991, when Zainab was a young woman stranded in America due to the Gulf War." It is at that time the author had just left her abusive husband and found herself unable to return to her native country.The book begins with Salbi writing about her growing up in Iraq where her family was placed in the uneviable position of having to (more or less forcibly)socialize with Saddam Hussein. The author vividly describes her impressions of the dictator and her knowledge of the fear he instilled in all those around him. Salbi's mother fearing that her daughter might herself become a victim if she remained in Iraq strongly encouraged Zainab to marry one of her countrymen already in the United States thus having a place to which she could find refuge. Instead Zainab became a victim of this man. She tolerated ill treatment for quite some time before the ultimate insult--marital rape-- at which point she decided to leave her husband. After a divorce and some time had passed the author found someone who was truly kind and supportive of her endeavors. Along with her new husband she founded Women to Women International, the first to benefit from being the many women who had been forced into "rape camps" in Bosnia.This is truly an inspirational book. I am not surprised to learn that the author has made frequent apperances on the Oprah Winfrey show. Winfrey, as many of us know, herself has done much to empower women to escape abusive situations. I would strongly recommend this book especially to all women who have ever suffered ill treatment, work with victims of abuse or aspire to one day.

I have just finished this book. It is really so well written and gives a good background on the days of Iraq under the Saddam regime. The author is likeable and paints a very sad picture of the lives of those close to Saddam> Great book well worth a read!