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Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Saddam Hussein

jean sasson

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Jean Sasson, author of the international bestseller A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, met Mayada Al-Askari on a trip to Baghdad in 1998. A year later, Jean learned that Mayada had been arrested and thrown into Iraq's Baladiyat Prison -- headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret police. Mayada's story, both past and present, is truly incredible. Her family was one of the most distinguished and honored families in Iraq. One grandfather fought alongside Lawrence of Arabia. The other was the first true Arab nationalist (admired greatly by Saddam Hussein). Her uncle was prime minister of Iraq for nearly forty years; her mother an important government official. In her youth. Mayada vacationed with Iraqi royalty. When Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party seized power in 1979, Mayada didn't foresee the devastation it would wreak upon her life and her beloved country. But she soon found herself alone, a divorced mother of two, earning a meager living printing brochures. She had no idea that she could ever become a target of Saddam's secret police ... until one nightmarish day in 1999. At Baladiyat, Mayada was thrown into cell 52 with seventeen other women -- nameless and faceless, from all sorts of backgrounds -- whose only shared connection was imprisonment without trial and the ever-present threat of torture and execution. To shut out the screams of other prisoners and to forget their fears, the "shadow women" passed each day by sharing their life stories. Mayada fascinated her cellmates with tales of her prominent family and of her own meetings with Saddam Hussein and Chemical Ali. Mayada has longed to share her story, but not until recent events was she able to speak out. Now, in Mayada, Daughter of Iraq, the searing and poignant story of one woman and her will to survive under the regime of Saddam Hussein comes to life. The names of the shadow women are still scrawled in charcoal onto the wall of cell 52.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1,1995
Places
iraq, middle east, baghdad, 

This edition

Format
304 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 2003 by Penguin Group
ISBN
9781413247329
ASIN
1413247326
Language
English

More editions

About the author

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jean sasson

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Jean Sasson was born in a small town in Alabama. An avid reader from an early age, she had read all the books in her school library by the time she was 15 years old. She also began her book collection at age 15. When given the chance to travel, Sasson accepted a position at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, and lived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 12 years. She traveled extensively, visiting 66 countries over the course of 30 years.

Jean started her writing career in 1991 when she wrote the book, THE RAPE OF KUWAIT. The book was an instant best-seller, reaching #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. When the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington heard that soldiers sent to free Kuwait did not know why they were there, the Embassy sent 200,000 copies to the region. Later Sasson wrote PRINCESS: A TRUE STORY OF LIFE BEHIND THE VEIL IN SAUDI ARABIA, which is the story of a princess in the royal house of al-Sa'ud. The book was an international bestseller published in 68 different editions (also staying on the NYTIMES bestseller list for 13 weeks). Later Sasson wrote two sequels (DAUGHTERS AND CIRCLE). Please visit this link to read an interview with the author about her book "Princess": http://reith-jerevinan.blogspot.com/2....

Other groundbreaking books followed: MAYADA, DAUGHTER OF IRAQ; ESTER'S CHILD; LOVE IN A TORN LAND; GROWING UP BIN LADEN (please visit this page to read an in-depth interview with Jean Sasson about "Growing Up bin Laden" http://www.thedailybeast.com/contribu... and FOR THE LOVE OF A SON.

In March 2012, an e-book short was released: AMERICAN CHICK IN SAUDI ARABIA, which consists of the first three chapters of Sasson's autobiography. On the second day of release, the book reached #1 on Barnes & Noble biography bestseller list. Jean's latest release is YASMEENA'S CHOICE, a heartbreaker of a story about two women (one Kuwaiti and the other Lebanese) kidnapped to be raped & tortured by the Iraqi special forces in occupied Kuwait. (Please visit this link to see an itnerview with Jean Sasson about her newest book "Yasmeena's Choice: http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainmen...).

Jean's 12th book, PRINCESS, MORE TEARS to CRY has just been released and is available in the English language in most countries. Foreign editions will be available throughout the next year. Jean Sasson's official website is: www.jeansasson.com.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
35(35%)
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28(28%)
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37(37%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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RhineSalz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book was good in the sense it solidifies what a nut case Saddam Hussein is! It was difficult to read parts because of how awful the Iraqi people, especially women, were/are treated. I'm hoping it's gotten a little bit better for the people.
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Eggxoe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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'Mayada' is so touching and immediate that one cannot but be aroused and moved. Jean Sasson has an uncanny way of drawing her readers to her accounts with such urgentcy that language seems to be of no consequence. However, that is the sign of a brilliant writer who moulds her language so masterfully that it melts into the background seamlessly while her narrative leaps out of the pages as though it were an account of the reader's own life.

The accounts such as of Sultana (Princess, Daughters of Arabia) and Mayada do need a voice like Sasson's so that the world may know of their bitter experiences and their courage in face of enormous hostilities.
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dro73
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I’ve been looking for this book for 3 years, our libraries in Iraq need to be updated with more books like this.
This is not your bundle of joy and from the title of it, I know that anything with Saddam is far from being joyful.
I don’t know how to describe it, I put down this book so many times and I ignored it as much as I could because I either was crying my soul out or just feeling depressed about what happened to all the Iraqis who have lived in Saddam's Iraq.

This book is just the tip of the iceberg, I'd like to tell a spoiler for Mayada because at the end of the book she said the nightmare was over. Mayada the nightmare is still going.
I’d like to think that samara is okay and all of the shadow women in cell 52 are okay and living their life outside this nightmare.
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Foamed
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I couldn't finish "Reading Lolita in Teheran", but this was a gripping real life tale about another middle eastern woman, of impeccable family, well-educated, divorced, and trying to run a printing business in Iraq when she fell into the paranoid hands of the warped legal system.
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Somali_Strawhat
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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It's not bad at all, this book is based on true events, that reflect how Saddam regime was. The novel could have been much better if she focused or revealed more details about the period that she spent in jail, instead of speaking about her family members.
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Kunieda4ev
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book is an account of Mayada being unjustly put into an Iraqi prison under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Mayada shared a prison cell with about 12 other women, all of whom had a story to tell of how they ended up in prison (none of them had committed crimes), their families who had no idea where they were, and the tortures they endured. Mayada differed from these women in that she came from a well known and respected family and therefore didn't endure as much torture.

This story was an eye-opening look at life in Iraq during Saddam's reign. There is much dispute over whether the war in Iraq should have occurred. After reading this book I am relieved that Saddam Hussein and his followers were taken out of power.

Overall, this book was worth reading...not pleasant, but worth reading.
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ELJITO
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I LOVED THIS
totally (re) challenged any ideas that i had about what it might have been like for women in the middle east (and -without intending on doing so- reminded me that I had absolutely NO IDEA what it is like [or has been like] for people outside of my culture). This was perpetually engaging and continuously surprising, and I read it within four days (even whilst studying for exams, and taking them). I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone who has any slight interest in a culture other than 'American.'
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tsuki77
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Not sure why it took forever to read this, but it's really good. Within the confines of an Iraqi prison, readers learn about a woman named Mayada who hails from an important Iraqi family. As Saddam Hussein's regime takes over, however, Mayada and her family find themselves without "protection" and Mayada is imprisoned for a month with other women until she is released and able to flee the country for Jordan. Readers also learn the plight of Mayada's cell mates who are falsely imprisoned and brutally tortured daily.
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