I finished reading this book yesterday. It was another story about the repressive and depressive lives of Muslim women living in the Middle East. But the exception of this story is that it revealed the Bin Laden’s family.
Carmen Bin Laden is the ex-wife of Yeslam Bin Laden, half brother of Osama Bin Laden. In the Middle East, especially the rich older generation, it is very common for a man to have more than 4 wives. For Carmen’s ex-father-in-law, he had 22 wives, both current and divorced, and from them he had 54 children.
Carmen’s heritage has a combination of Persian and Swiss, but she spent her un-marriage lives in Geneva. Due to her exposure of western values, she found it oppressive to live in Saudi Arabia later when Yeslam suggested shifting there.
Initially her marriage was blissful and she had a supportive husband, whom is very unlike any Arab men. But as he aged, his Saudi’s ways become more apparent, and it’s the beginning of a souring marriage.
Carmen is considered a lot more fortunate than the Saudi’s women, as she enjoyed small liberty from her husband as compared to the rest of the story I read, where women are treated like an object, unworthy of any respect and strip off any remaining dignity.
Instead this story reveals the rich Saudi’s women side of the story, another form of confinement, or golden fish bowl. I would think their plight will be more of an emotional problem – the loneliness and emptiness they feel, rather than the physical harm most woman experience.
Carmen Bin Laden is the ex-wife of Yeslam Bin Laden, half brother of Osama Bin Laden. In the Middle East, especially the rich older generation, it is very common for a man to have more than 4 wives. For Carmen’s ex-father-in-law, he had 22 wives, both current and divorced, and from them he had 54 children.
Carmen’s heritage has a combination of Persian and Swiss, but she spent her un-marriage lives in Geneva. Due to her exposure of western values, she found it oppressive to live in Saudi Arabia later when Yeslam suggested shifting there.
Initially her marriage was blissful and she had a supportive husband, whom is very unlike any Arab men. But as he aged, his Saudi’s ways become more apparent, and it’s the beginning of a souring marriage.
Carmen is considered a lot more fortunate than the Saudi’s women, as she enjoyed small liberty from her husband as compared to the rest of the story I read, where women are treated like an object, unworthy of any respect and strip off any remaining dignity.
Instead this story reveals the rich Saudi’s women side of the story, another form of confinement, or golden fish bowl. I would think their plight will be more of an emotional problem – the loneliness and emptiness they feel, rather than the physical harm most woman experience.
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