between two worlds

While reading Half the Sky, I was drawn to an organization they mentioned: Women For Women International.  Most intriguing was the brief discussion of the founder, Zainab Salbi, a woman who spent her life in the shadow of Saddam Hussein.  Between Two Worlds is a gripping story I could not stop reading.

"Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to be Saddam Hussein's personal pilot and her family's life was grafted onto his.  Her mother, the beautiful Alia, taught her daughter the skills she needed to survive.  A plastic smile.  Saying yes.  Burying in boxes in her mind the horrors she glimpsed around her.  'Learn to erase your memories,' she instructed.  'He can read eyes.'

In this richly visual memoir, Salbi describes  tyranny as she saw it - through the eyes of a privileged child, a rebellious teenager, a violated wife, and ultimately a public figure fighting to overcome the skill that once kept her alive: silence."