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A review by marik0n
Sold by Zana Muhsen
4.0
I first read this book when I was about 12 years old and I was astonished. This was the first book that familiarised me with how women live in Yemen and with the issue of sold brides. Until the moment I read it, I had believed that this customs and behaviors had been eliminated long ago.
I was honestly terrified with the things I learned. This book is an autobiography by a British woman who actually experienced being sold into marriage, adapting to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance and managed to escape in order to tell the story.Sadly, as she states, her sister still lives in this eastern hell, without many chances to escape it.
I believe that this was one of these books that awoke my feministic side and thinking and also made me feel so angry towards men who think they OWN women and therefor are able to decide for their lives and benefit from it.
Also, this book made me interested in Islam and its practises and the way religions - not exclusively Islam- can be extremely discriminating towards some groups.
I was honestly terrified with the things I learned. This book is an autobiography by a British woman who actually experienced being sold into marriage, adapting to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance and managed to escape in order to tell the story.Sadly, as she states, her sister still lives in this eastern hell, without many chances to escape it.
I believe that this was one of these books that awoke my feministic side and thinking and also made me feel so angry towards men who think they OWN women and therefor are able to decide for their lives and benefit from it.
Also, this book made me interested in Islam and its practises and the way religions - not exclusively Islam- can be extremely discriminating towards some groups.