
Inside the Kingdom
My Life In Saudi Arabia
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Narrated by:
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Shohreh Aghdashloo
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By:
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Carmen bin Ladin
About this listen
In 1974, Carmen, half-Swiss and half-Persian, married into the bin Ladin family. She was young and in love, an independent European woman about to join a complex clan and a culture she neither knew nor understood. In Saudi Arabia, she was forbidden to leave her home without the head-to-toe black abaya that completely covered her. Her face could never be seen by a man outside the family. And according to Saudi law, her husband could divorce her at will, without any kind of court procedure, and take her children away from her forever.
Carmen was an outsider among the bin Ladin wives, their closets full of haute couture dresses, their rights so restricted that they could not go outside their homes, not even to cross the street, without a chaperone. The author takes us inside the hearts and minds of these women, always at the mercy of the husbands who totally control their lives, and always convinced that their religion and culture are superior to any other. And as Carmen tells of her struggle to save her marriage and raise her daughters to be freethinking young women, she describes this family's ties to the Saudi royal family and introduces us to the ever loyal bin Ladin brothers, including one particular brother-in-law she was to encounter: Osama.
In 1988, in Switzerland, Carmen bin Ladin separated from her husband and began one of her toughest battles: to gain the custody of her three daughters. Now, with her candid memoir, she dares to pull off the veils that conceal one of the most powerful, secretive, and repressive countries in the world, and the bin Ladin family's role within it.
©2004 Carmen Bin Ladin (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"The gravity of the events Carmen writes of, her insider's perspective, and her engaging style make this memoir a page-turner." (Publishers Weekly)
I was born and raised in saudi until the age of 18 then i have moved to the US for 3 years and then moved to dubai. However, I still love saudi and I feel that it’s a really great place to live in.
I am saudi and here is what I think.
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interesting
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A Real Education
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Revealing
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Great Story!
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An inside look at the kingdom.
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
yes and I have because it had a good story and was so interesting.What other book might you compare Inside the Kingdom to and why?
Growing up Bin Ladin, because they were about the same topic.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
manyCouldn't wait to pick it up again
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A true insight !
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Pretty close, but not everyone agrees...
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A decidedly western take on an eastern culture
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