Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men by Souad - Book Review

I enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies. It is always interesting to me to find out how people personally handled struggles in their own lives. So, when I saw a book written by a Palestinian girl who lived in Palestine for the first 20 years of her life and was a victim of an attempted honor killing, I was instantly fascinated. What could she share with me that would have an impact on my life?

I read "Burned Alive: a victim of the law of men," by Souad. This story was set in a Palestinian village on the West bank. Souad (not her real name) was a teenager when the horrific event happened. She first traces her childhood as a female child living in a patriarchal society. She details numerous counts of abuse. Souad portrays the worst kinds of degradation as a female child. She says that being a girl was a curse in her society. She recounts numerous times when her mother smothered female babies because she did not want anymore girl children. She says that she was treated worse than the animals. At least the animals could bring in money.

You yearn to know about Souad and her situation. You are instantly enwrapped in the story. This book will pull at your heart strings and make you sympathize with Souad from the beginning of the story. You will begin to ask yourself: "Do Arab men really treat female children and their wives in this fashion? Is this story actually possible?"

Then, Souad continues to explain her indiscretion. She makes eye contact with a man whom she thinks wants to marry her. With subtle clues, they plan to meet in a field. The boy kisses her and later convinces her to lay with him in that field. He promises that he will ask for her hand in marriage, but he never makes that request to her father. The result is that she is pregnant and he leaves her alone. When her family finds out about the indiscretion, they decide to "Take care of the situation." Her Brother-in-law pours gasoline on her and tries lighting her on fire. A neighbor sees Souad running from the flames and gets her to a hospital. After a couple of attempts to kill her by her family, they decide to allow her to die in a hospital. An Aid worker from Switzerland rescues Souad, takes her abroad and helps her to live a normal life. She has to have many operations to fix her burned skin. The book says that she was burned over 60% of her body. She also gives birth in that hospital and the child goes to an orphanage where he is also rescued by this aid worker.

This story moves quickly, is action packed and is heroic. It makes us feel pity for Souad and anger toard all Arab men. Yet, there are some questions that arise out of the book. Souad says that she can't give specific information because she is afraid that people will come after her. Yet, her father was no one of significance. She was quite quick to adopt the desire to wear skimpy clothes and do other western things which would have been a sin in her culture.

While I had a few doubts of my own, there were skeptics that were much more intelligent than I. they debunked the story on a variety of valid points. It is certainly true that Honor killings happen in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It is certainly true that there are different rules and roles for Western and Eastern women. But, before your tears flow and the feminist in you gets all riled up, it is a good idea to take a look at the facts listed on the following website, which by the way, are presented by a woman. Embarrassed that I did not think analytically about the story and debunk some of these myths myself, I am shamed into better book reviewing habits. I'll have to give this book a 1.5* rating. Maybe they could clean up the inconsistencies and rerelease this book as fiction.