Burned Alive - Hardcover

Souad

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 059305251X ISBN 13: 9780593052518

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2004

Synopsis

When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family and was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the family's clothes, he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a 'crime of honour' was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year and many more take place that we hear nothing about. Miraculously, Souad survived rescued by the women of her village, who put out the flames and took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned, and abandoned by her family and community, it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed and to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage and fortitude and of one woman's determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices and which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence.

About this title

About the Author

Souad now lives in Europe. She is married with three children

From the Back Cover

I suddenly feel a cold liquid running over my head and instantly I am on fire. It is like a movie that has been speeded up, images racing past. I start to run in the garden, barefoot. I slap my hair, I scream. I feel my dress billow out behind me. Is it on fire, too?

I smell the petrol and I run, the hem of my long dress getting in the way. My terror leads im instinctively away from the courtyard. I run towards the garden as the only way out. I know I'm running and I'm on fire and I'm screaming. But I remember almost nothing after that. How do I get away? Does he run after me? Is he waiting for me to fass so he can watch me go up in flames?

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 059305251X
• ISBN 13: 9780593052518
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210