Honor Lost (aka Forbidden Love)
Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan
by Norma Khouri
Overview
From BookCloseOuts.com
Dalia was a young, beautiful Arabian Muslim living with her family in Amman, Jordan. At the age of twenty-five, she unexpectedly fell in love with Michael, a major in the Royal Army, and a Catholic. For a Muslim woman, any relationship with a Catholic man is forbidden, and Dalia was only too aware that flouting this rule could cost her her life. With the help of Dalia's lifelong friend, author Norma Khouri, they went to extraordinary lengths to meet in secret. Their relationship remained entirely chaste. Although they covered their tracks meticulously, one of Dalia's brothers became suspicious and eventually Dalia was murdered at the hands of her own father. Norma Khouri's book is a gift to the memory of her friend. In it she recounts the powerful love story that ended in tragedy, and also attempts to bring to the world's attention the continuing practice of honor killing in Jordan - an ancient tradition that encourages the murder of women considered to have dishonored their families. It is a crime that effectively goes unpunished.
My thoughts
Uh ... yeah. Talk about disillusioned. After reading this book and getting caught up in the terrible plight of Jordanian women, I did some internet research and found out that this story is a hoax. According to a timeline of the author's life, she only lived in Jordan for 3 years, after which her family came to America. At the time that the events in the book unfold, she was living in ... Chicago. Pfffft!
I'm glad I read the book. Even if honor killing isn't as prevalent as Norma Khouri makes it out to be, one death based on honor killing is one too many. We shouldn't close our eyes to brutality.
And in retrospect, I'm glad to know that the character in the book, Dalia, a Muslim who falls in love with a Catholic, isn't brutally murdered by her father after all. I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing this book is fiction. Though I don't for the life of me understand why Norma Khouri published her book as truth.
Norma Khouri: Tragic Lies
Source: www.amirbutler.com
“What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence,” Bertrand Russell opined, “is an index to his desires – desires of which he himself is often unconscious.” And so it was Norma Khouri would dupe the world into believing “Forbidden Love”: her purportedly autobiographical account of her life in Jordan centered around the honour killing of her childhood friend, Dalia. The book, a tragic Romeo and Juliet style tale of love between Muslim hairdresser Dalia and Christian customer Michael ends with Dalia being murdered by her Muslim father incensed at the extra-marital and inter-religious liaisons of his daughter.
Favorite Passage
She ran to the phone and picked it up, and I left the room so she could have some privacy. I went into the break room and made a fresh pot of coffee just as Mohammed burst in and plopped himself down on the couch, waiting for us to serve him. Dalia hung up swifly when she saw him, but we'd have no chance to sit and go over our conversations with Michael. We could hardly bear it.
"Norma, get me some coffee." Never any "please" from this idiot. I fumed that I had to kowtow to him, but before he left I'd at least try to seize the moment to further our secret plans.
