A woman called Mayada. Review on Mayada: Daughter of Iraq - Jean Sasson

Life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil.” And this makes me wonder how wrong his words have been misinterpreted, misused over and over again in the long history of mankind. Mayada – Daughter of Iraq, One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein. That’s the complete title of the book by Jean Sasson. Mayada is one such book which will make you cringe at the thought of the atrocities people underwent under the regime of slain President Saddam Hussein.

Mayada is a true story of Mayada Al-Askari, who belonged to one of the most influential families before Saddam’s rule. When Jean went to Iraq, she befriended Mayada while Mayada worked as translator for her. The book is the result of the numerous stories which Mayada shared with Jean.

Mayada came from family which belonged to Ottoman Empire that ruled Middle East, some parts of Africa and Asia for over 400 years. Her full name is Mayada Nizar Jafar Mustafa Al-Askari. A divorced mother of 2 children Fay and Ali, she started her own printing office and employed highly qualified computer engineers to work for her. One fine day, she is taken into prison without any reasons provided and is put in cell 52 which already had 17 other women prisoners.

Like Mayada most of them had no clue why they were arrested in first place? The book then delves into the stories which these 18 “Shadow Women” shared amongst themselves. Mayada was shocked to hear their stories and felt ashamed to be an Iraqi first time in her life. Amongst these women, Mayada was the one who in actual fact had met Saddam not once but on three occasions. And all three time she was honored by Saddam for her independent and impressive writing skills. Saddam in true sense was actually a great admirer of Mayada’s maternal grandfather Sati Al-Husri which is still viewed as a great man ever born by all.

Women were surprised to know that Saddam knew her family and invited Mayada and her mother for lunch once to his palace. Mayada confessed she herself had great respect for Saddam when he had started his political career. He was all game for schools, hospitals as he believed a good health and education are the two most important things a human must have. What many Iraqi did not know then that secretly he was creating an Internal Secret Service which would change the face of Iraq forever. The book later describes the various forms of tortures prisoners had to endure. There were electric poles, chains, hooks hanging from the ceiling et al.

I am not going to dig more into it as you must read it by yourself to believe what happened and how it happened. Mayada survived the prison and is currently in UAE working as Business Development Manager in Publishing and IT Firm(https://fayrouz.blogspot.com/2005/08/interviewing-mayada-al-askari.html).

P.S. Jean Sasson is an American writer and traveler who has written seven books so far. Her books mostly depict the women’s issues in the gulf countries where she lived for more than 10 years. She can without any doubt be classified as the one who understood the Arab Woman well and felt their pain as hers.

That is why her books speak truth and makes you wonder, is the human life so cheap to be taken for granted?

Her work includes:

1) The Rape of Kuwait

2) Princess

3) Daughters of Arabia

4) Princess’s circle

5) Ester’s child

6) Mayada: Daughter of Iraq

7) Love in Torn Land: Joanna of Kurdistan

I was quite surprised to see not many have written reviews on Jean’s book. I have read 5 of these books and after finishing Mayada recently, I thought let me put my thoughts across. Hopefully, will write the review for her other books as well.