knotheadusc's Full Review: Carmen Bin Ladin et al - Inside The Kingdom: My Li...
It must be hell to be a member of Osama bin Laden's enormous family these days. After all, Osama bin Laden is either revered or feared by many of the world's citizens. Not long ago, I caught a newscast about bin Laden's adult son, Omar, who supposedly seeks peace between the Islamic world and the West. It seems the man is having trouble finding a country that will allow him residence. He has sought and been denied political asylum in Spain, Egypt, and the United Kingdom, apparently because of his name and association with Osama bin Laden. Omar bin Laden's troubles with that infamous last name are echoed in Inside The Kingdom: My Life In Saudi Arabia (2004), a book written by his aunt, Carmen bin Ladin. According to Carmen bin Ladin, whose ex husband Yeslam is Osama bin Laden's older brother, being a member of the bin Laden family is fraught with pitfalls, especially if one happens to be a woman not of Saudi Arabian descent.
Recently, I've been doing more reading about life in the Middle East. I came across Inside The Kingdom on a recent Amazon spree after searching for related books I had spotted in a bookstore. Carmen bin Ladin's story looked intriguing. Now that I've finished reading it, I can confirm that her story is fascinating, even as it's also bittersweet.
Carmen bin Ladin grew up near Lausanne, Switzerland, the daughter of an Iranian Muslim woman and a Swiss Christian father. When bin Ladin was growing up, she spent many vacations visiting her grandmother in Iran, a place that she describes as colorful and dramatic. Although her mother was Muslim, Carmen bin Ladin grew up relatively unfettered by religious dogma. She saw Iran as "a secret garden", until her parents split up when she was nine. In an effort to save face, Carmen bin Ladin's mother cut off all connection with Iran and raised her four daughters alone.
Carmen bin Ladin met her husband, Yeslam, in Geneva in 1973. Now grown, bin Ladin and her sisters had decided to visit their grandmother in Iran and their mother had agreed to rent out part of their house to a vacationing Saudi family. Yeslam had come to finalize the rental agreement. The two were immediately attracted to each other and it wasn't long before they were engaged. They were married in 1974 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At that time, Carmen bin Ladin's previous life of relative freedom came to an end. She had to wear an abaya and a veil in the oppressive Saudi Arabian heat. Her husband became her legal guardian. And she lived as a foreigner among a very proud, massively powerful Saudi family.
Inside The Kingdom is bin Ladin's bitterly written tale of what it was like for her to be a woman living in Saudi Arabia as a member of the bin Laden family. Her writing is very compelling and passionate, even if it comes across as somewhat amateurish and redundant at times. Like so many other people, Carmen bin Ladin was horrified by the events of September 11, 2001, especially as she realized that her brother in law was behind it. However, although Osama bin Laden is her former brother in law and her daughters' uncle, Carmen bin Ladin claims that she barely knew him and her daughters had never met him. Nevertheless, her oldest daughter, Wafeh, was a student at Columbia University's Law School at the time. Just like many other people with ties to New York City, Carmen bin Ladin feared for a loved one's safety on 9/11.
Although I found Inside The Kingdom very intriguing reading, there were some things I didn't like about the book. First of all, it seemed to me that Carmen bin Ladin wrote her story, in part, for self-serving reasons. She claims that she and her daughters will always be scarred by their affiliation with the bin Laden family. And yet, I can't help but think that perhaps without that famous name, her book might not have made it to The New York Times Bestseller List. This is an interesting book, to be sure, but there have been other, better books written by women who have escaped oppression. Secondly, I found bin Ladin's overall tone to be mostly negative. She has very negative things to say about Saudi women in general, depicting them as sniping, gossiping, manipulative, and immature creatures with no intellect. So even as she complains about the oppressive life of a Saudi woman, I'm almost left thinking that maybe she believes that most Saudi women deserve their lot in life. Or maybe she just thinks the women are that way because that's all they know. Nevertheless, I thought bin Ladin sometimes came across as unforgiving and perhaps a bit selfish.
On the other hand, bin Ladin does include some interesting comments about Islamic culture, particularly as it relates to Saudi Arabia. As a member of the bin Laden clan, Carmen bin Ladin led a very privileged life. Her friends included royalty as well as diplomats from other cultures. Nevertheless, she offers some insight about some of the social mores in Saudi Arabia and the convoluted protocol involved with dealing with other people, especially those of the opposite sex. She also offers some anecdotes that are fairly outrageous, such as the story of a young princess whose grandfather ordered her killed because she tried to flee the country before marrying the man to whom she was promised. Finally, there are two photo sections, which offer a glimpse of Carmen bin Ladin's life.
By the way, if my readers wonder why I have spelled bin Ladin two different ways in this review, it's because that's the way the names are presented within the book. An editor's note explains that the name bin Ladin can be transliterated in a number of different ways. Therefore, when this book refers to the family as a whole, the name is spelled bin Laden. The alternate spelling, bin Ladin, is used in reference to Carmen and Yeslam bin Ladin.
According to Inside The Kingdom, Carmen bin Ladin and her daughters have had a tough time of it bearing the burden of their last name. However, it occurs to me that Carmen and her daughters are luckier than a lot of Saudi women. Carmen bin Ladin was able to get a divorce in Switzerland. And though she claims her husband's alimony is less than Yeslam's private pilot's salary, she and her grown daughters are still free to live life as they please, as long as they don't visit a Muslim country. I feel the same compassion for Carmen bin Ladin that I would for anyone recovering from a nasty divorce with a vindictive spouse, and I certainly appreciate her astute insights into Saudi culture. But I have a hard time feeling sorry for her. She seems to be doing alright for herself, despite that troublesome last name.
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