Annick Cojean, foreign correspondent for Le Monde, is one of France's most widely admired journalists. She chairs the committee for the Prix Albert Londres, having won the prize herself in 1996, and has published a number of books.
This is not an easy book to read, but it is a book that needs to be read nonetheless. The atrocities committed by Gaddafi, both public and secret, need to be publicly aired so that the nation of Libya can begin rebuilding its cultural and social history. Although a taboo subject, the sexual crimes that were perpetrated by the ruler and his followers cannot be forgotten or simply swept under the rug, as many would prefer. It is quite interesting to see how religion and culture can even shape people's reactions to these types of atrocities; blaming the women and feeling that a sense of shame is reflected upon the family, instead of on the abusers. The saddest reality is that not much seems to have changed in the country regarding the equality of women. Until women are given a place at the same table as the men who get to make decisions concerning their lives, there will never be equality.
Political prisoners who have been beaten, humiliated, staved and chained are given a welcome back to society. Not so for Gaddafi鈥檚 sex slaves 鈥� and slaves they were. Upon release, none were feted, some were killed by their own families, all were labeled whores. This is the case of the women in Gaddafi's Harem.
This powerful content needs a better book. I recognize that there are loses in translation as it goes from Arabic to French to English and I recognize the need to disguise the identity of those who agreed to be interviewed. The problems are that the stories are only sketches and that smaller points take space that should have been given to the larger issues.
The first third of the book is the experience of Soyara. While history should have specifics about how the women of Bab al-Azizia were treated, I was glad that bedroom parts were general. The result is significant: when Gaddafi was finished with Soyara, she was often bruised, bleeding and sometimes needed medical help.
The space devoted to Soyara; however, is an example of the need for perspective in this book. If this were a collection of short biographies on the women of the harem, the full story of Soyara in France (and the author鈥檚 verification trip) would have been appropriate. Because the book is (or should be) about the extent of Gaddafi鈥檚 sexual predation, the bios should have been either summarized or edited to include more info and description on topic: How did they cope? How did they relate to each other and to providers such as Mabrouka? How often were they called to 鈥渢he Guide鈥� and how did they spend their time in between? What did they share of their experiences in words, gestures, attitudes? There is little mention of the men who were raped, did they live in the Bab al-Azizia basement too?. The security needs explaining: one day one is held captive and on another able to walk out.
In the later part of the book, Anniek Cojean describes what I believe is the most important revelation: how sex was a key part of Gaddafi鈥檚 grip on power. Gaddafi used sex to control and thumb his nose at Libyans. Harming a daughter or wife in a culture obsessed with female chastity was a powerful weapon. The girl or woman is blamed and the family shunned and ruined. The family may kill the woman to show their solidarity with the community. Sex was also a part of Gaddafi鈥檚 foreign policy. This particular weapon had nothing to do with Libya, and all to do with Gaddafi. In foreign affairs, he could best foreign leaders with unseen yet obvious trysts with wives, daughters and appointees.
The scope of Gaddafi鈥檚 sex operation was astounding. He had people devoted to looking for women. He gave speeches at a university where he had a secret boudoir aside a gynecology room. He had his regime sponsor beauty pageants and shopping trips for young girls. He seems to beat up only the Libyan women. The 鈥淕uide鈥檚鈥� sex seemed to take all the regime鈥檚 time and energy. There seems to be no interest in education, trade, agriculture or any other government endeavor.
There needs to be more exploration of the role of sexual predation in Gadaffi鈥檚 rise to and grip on power. There must be more consideration of these victims in post-liberated Libya. Gaddafi's inclination to abuse was abetted by the cultural view of women (and it appears homosexuals too) that keeps their mistreatment out of sight. Can this be common in other countries where women have few rights? Has this been an historical norm that has prompted the custom of veiling?
At the end, the author says this book is being distributed in the US, Italy, China and Libya. I will be interested in the reaction of Libyans. What will happen to the profiled women if and when their identity is discovered? Will Libyans see the role of women, who began their revolution, with new eyes?
While this book is a three star book, I鈥檓 giving it 5 for the courage of the author and those who were interviewed and for the importance of the issue it introduces.
This book is very disturbing yet an important document of the Gaddafi years in Libya. The bravery of this young woman and the savagery and cowardice of her countrymen is painful to read, I can only imagine what she herself must feel. This story is an indictment of a brutal dictator and the system of men and women who facilitated his systematic rape and torture of young women and men (many of them still children really) and a society which despite ridding themselves of Gaddafi himself, continue to ignore the victims of his violent crimes. Any society which covers up crimes against its most vulnerable citizens rather than confront them and assist the victims to heal is continuing in the perpetuation of the original crime. Until a society truly values it's women and children it is going to continue to perpetuate brutal crime.
The sense of outrage is palpable in this book, perhaps because so many of those who should be outraged would prefer to not know or acknowledge this sad history.
I came away from this book feeling like I wanted to know there would be some outcome for young women like this. However the feeling I was left with was rather hopeless.
An important historic and social document which deserves wide acknowledgement. Unfortunately I found the translation from the original french very clunky and ponderous. I had hoped Le Monde would have authorised a more readable English version.
This is the opposite of a light read. French journalist Annick Cojean writes an important but hard to read account of the extensive system of sexual abuse /sexual slavery that existed in Libya under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. About the first half of the book (and in my opinion the most engrossing) is a firsthand account of one of Gaddafi's "girls." Soraya's story is brutal but it turns out, not uncommon. At the age of 15 she was "selected" from her school to present a bouquet of flowers to Gaddafi. She thought this was an honor but it turned into a nightmare that resulted in her enslavement for many years. Eventually, even her own family turned against her, because of the "shame" she had brought onto them. Gaddafi was a brutal and violent man who was completely obsessed with sex. Gaddafi selected women he desired from all parts of society, from the wives of visiting foreign dignitaries, to 12-year-old schoolgirls. He was fond of brutal, violent rape and caused internal injuries in many women. No one stopped him, because his regime was so powerful that to speak against any action would result in imprisonment, torture, and sometimes death.
I think the most sinister part of this story was the accounts of the women who were complicit in this system, from the Eastern European nurses who took care of the victims after each brutal rape, to the terrifying Mabrouka, whose job it was to bring the girls to Gaddafi and "train" them to become whatever he desired. It is incredibly the things that people are capable of doing to each other. The author of this book found it very difficult to find people willing to talk to her about these atrocities. It is very disturbing that the women who were put through this torture cannot even get justice or recognition for what they went through, because Libyan society considers rape victims to be at fault. Gaddafi was a complete monster, and I can't believe that this part of the Libyan revolution has received such little exposure. This is a disturbing but very important story.
Gaddafis Brutalit盲t kannte keine Grenzen, ein Scheusal. Unvorstellbares hat er seinen "Sklavinnen" angetan. Ungeheurlich, was er sich alles einfallen liess! Einige europ盲ische Staatsm盲nner hofierten ihn und er belohnte sie mit Millionen Euros!
Nun wieder brandaktuell (M盲rz 2018), da gerade der franz枚sische Ex-Pr盲sident Nicolas Sarkozy festgenommen wurde, weil er unter Verdacht steht, zig Millionen Euro Wahlkampfspenden von Gadaffi angenommen zu haben.
Lunatic book, a complete waste of time and money full of lies, recommended only for perverts and disturbed people; western cheap propaganda at its best (or worst?); should have a label "FICTION" on its cover _ One of the most bizarre and terrible books I had ever read. The author probably was funded by someome interested in create a demonized figure of the former Libyan leader. This book is intended for those manipulated people with low IQ who believe the world is a big western cowboy movie with good guys (America, UK) vs bad guys like Gaddafi. The source of book has ZERO credibility and the whole story is almost laughable so disconnected of reality it is. Only buy this book if you are a couch potato with nihil knowledge of the media dirty propaganda systems and plus are sexually pervert and have pleasure fantasying the gross details of this sick book. If the world was a fair place, the author would be sued by Gaddafi relatives for creating this piece of garbage. Run away and avoid this, because watching Reality shows give you more culture than this Manual of "how make your enemy looks inhuman" which maybe have made a impact in Century XIX but is almost infantile on the Age of internet.
A shame that among a lot of serious books about Libya and its former government, this FICTIONAL piece of propaganda is BY FAR the most distributed and sold. It tells something about our western culture and how manipulated we are. "Soraya", its main character, is so plausible (sic) as Gaddafi feeding gangs of African mercenaries with Viagra to mass-rape Libyan women, a story that was widely reported in 2011 by the media and later totally dismissed as histeric bull**** by Red Cross.
Even if you didnt like him or his politics, you must know that the way Gaddafi is portraited - as a drug and sex addicted rapist - have absolutely no touch with reality and no references at all in his other biographies, including those texts produced by people which didnt praise and even rivalized with him. It becomes more interesting if you realize that Colonel Gaddafi was West enemy for at least three decades and only after NATO assault on Libya and his brutal assassination - a War Crime worldwide broadcasted - a report like this conveniently came to light.
Mrs. Cojean should apply for a job on a british below standard tabloid and/or seek psychological help from professionals. Not even Hillary Clinton herself could write a piece more biased and grotesque than this. It absolutely needs to be put on the fictional shelf, but still would be a poor read. I read it for free, but if someome offered me a copy of "Gaddafi's Harem" and asked to exchange it for a tin can filled with manure, I would reject cause its a bad deal.
It is disturbingly sad to see and makes you feel depressed and hopeless about the situation of our educational system and the future of our civilization to note how many innocent readers who reviewed it before were so frightened and shocked by the horror TALES described in this book that they couldn't even question how its possible - or at least to see the blatant incoherence - that the man who managed for 42 years the population with the highest HDI on Africa and had a crucial leading role on the continent's social developments - Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela used to call him as "our Brother and Guide" - was in his private life a modern version of Caligula or Vlad the Impaler...
I do believe this creative and perhaps mentally sick author had fantasied a history about sexual slavery and then decided to use a famous world leader as its protagonist so it would boost the book sales, and her choice of legendary Brother Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for this crappy book certainly did it and plus pleased a lot of influent people in the western part of the globe, which helped such a waste of paper and ink (or bytes and battery) to contaminate a large number of readers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.