I was drawn to Carmen Bin Laden's memoir, Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia when I was doing research about the country of Saudi Arabia. I was pleased to find a fascinating story of a woman trying to protect her children from the fall-out after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and raise them to be educated free-thinkers instead of grooming them to become chattel in a severe culture.

Young and deeply in love, this half-Swiss and half-Persian girl married into the vast Bin Laden family. With her European upbringing, she was not prepared for her several years of married life in the male-dominated Muslim world, where "women are no more than house pets." The harsh treatment of Saudi women seems almost criminal, and Carmen doesn't hide the fact that money, status, and location all play an important role in determining how a woman is treated treated. In Saudi Arabia, sequestered Muslim wives are oppressed and treated like second class citizens. It's not only the men who expect women to stay "under wraps," uneducated, and out of the public eye; the older Saudi women often force young women to adopt codes of behavior that turn them into pieces of property. Money, on the other hand, can buy a woman a temporary reprieve, a trip to Europe and America, where an almost unfettered life can be led, but when she returns behind the veil, life becomes frightening.

Not wanting her three young children to be subjected to this upbringing, Carmen fights her way out of a painful marriage and makes a life for her family in Europe and America. Just when things seem to be leveling out, the horror of 9/11 occurs and Carmen has to fight the stigma attached to her married name of Bin Laden.

This painful memoir will be quick to read and difficult to put down, but you may find yourself returning to read again about life Inside the Kingdom.

by Rhonda Esakov
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

In this book, Osama Bin Laden's sister-in-law Carmen Bin Laden gets a final word in edgewise, and it is quite a word indeed. It exposes what she describes as the crude opulence, emotionally shallow, debauched, harsh and often ignorance, overly rich Saudi royal family. According to her description, the desert kingdom drips in waste, gaudiness, opaqueness, mean-spiritedness, internecine snipping and betrayal, and is grounded in utter and base religious hypocrisy. In short, Saudi Arabia, like the Taliban, is a cult-like religiously based state -- only richer.

The book is about the author's plight to save her three daughters from a life of a slow "death by religious constriction." She succeeds in painting a graphic picture of a society that values appearances over its own pious beliefs, one still rooted in the nomadic desert tribal mentalities and still driven by primordial desert tribal fears.

As one would expect, there is very little here about Osama that we did not already know: For instance, that he is a very tall, not particularly intelligent, but very pious, a very wealthy religious warrior and the "nth" son of one of the richest and most powerful construction company magnates in Saudi Arabia. During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S supported him and his cause, and a large majority of Saudis still support his extremist views. Even in the post-911 world, he remains an iconic, a very much revered and protected religious hero in a nation where being a successful religious warrior amounts to a lot.

The book shows that Osama Bin Laden and those like him do not spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. But that they are carefully nurtured by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society, that, until this day remains very much closed to the outside world.

In its essential outline it is not unlike Harsi Ali's "The Caged Virgin," for it too is as much an exposé on how religion becomes a self-enforcing form of mental enslavement on women, even as it is used as the foundation for a decadent, oppressive and a rigidly inhuman social order. Saudi women never become legal adults in Saudi society. They have few meaningful legal rights. The Bin Laden women were kept shut in their homes like pets kept by their husbands. The certainty of their inferiority and subservient status is bred into their bones as it is done to blacks in America.

The intelligence and energy of women in Saudi Arabia can only be expressed through religion. They live only through, and for, their faith, which as it turns out is also the primary instrument of their oppression. Yet, most lack the courage or the will to resist the oppressive social order religion imposes upon them. The result is that their personalities are completely annihilated. They become dependent for their survival on their ability to manipulate their husbands. A disobedient woman dishonors her family and can be killed legally. Yet, because Islam is their way of life, these women do not chafe at the restrictions they live under: They embrace them. It is a willing form of self-enslavement. While there is little new here, it does come with a personal touch and much passion. Four stars

Four Stars

Carmen Bin Laben's book is an insightful look at life for women in Saudi Arabia. The book provides an insider's view of life in this Arab nation beyond what the news media or other reports might disclose. Carmen narrates just how much in conflict the thoughts, traditions, and religious life of Saudi Arabia are with those held in Europe or the United States. As a male reader, the book was slow in parts because of the ongoing references to her motherhood and attachment to her children. The book also enticed the reader with a glimpse of her infamous brother-in-law, Osama, but never fully delivered any insights beyond what might be gleaned from other writing about him. Overall, a worthwhile read for understanding the life of women in this Arab nation. The reader will find Bin Laden's book of more value if they have read an Introduction to Islam prior to undertaking her story.

This is a very interesting, well written book that will give you a lot of insight into what it's like be a female living in Saudi Arabia. In spite of wealth, it is definitely not much fun to be a woman in that society. This is the story of an attractive, intelligent young woman who was raised in Western Europe, who then met, fell in love with and married one of Bin Laden's many brothers who was also living in Western Europe. This of course happened before 9-11. At first they lived in Europe and then the US and all went well until he took her back to his home in Saudi Arabia to live. As it turns out, the Saudis are almost as repressive as the Taliban. Very revealing! I recommend it.

Interesting and fast read. Carmen goes over what it was like to live in Saudi Arabia and how opressive it is for women to live there. She tells it like it is neither overdoing it or glamourizing it. In a way, she tells it like an outside observer might without playing herself to be a victim.

I definitely reccomend this book. It is not too in depth and is suitable for teenagers to read.

I pick up a lot of books, read about half of them, and put them down. This book is fascinating, and I read it the night I bought it. I just finished another book about the life of women in Saudi Arabia, and I was curious to see if another woman offered the same perspective. The author's voice is a fascinating one, as she was raised in a Western culture, but lived amid the Arabs long enough to truly witness theirs.

This book gives a very insightful look into the lives of Saudi women, and their role in the lives of their families and in their religion. It also says some interesting things about Osuma Bin Laden who was one of her brothers-in-law. It is easy to read and well written. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the author was so taken in by her husband, but love does strange things. They definitely did lead two different lives, depending on whether they were in Saudi Arabia, or elsewhere in the world (Switzerland or the US). I learned a great deal that helped me understand things I learned in some other books I have read in which the practice of Islam played a key role. It is a fairly quick read, and quite interesting, although the end gets a little repetitive

This is a memoir of Carmen Bin Ladin's life as a child growing up in Switzerland; of later meeting her husband Yeslam Bin Ladin whilst a student in Geneva; of then living in Jeddah amongst the Bin Ladins; and finally to her painful divorce.

Carmen was born of a Swiss father and an Iranian mother. It was not accepted in Iran for a Muslim girl to marry a Christian foreigner, so her mother had to leave Iran to escape her family's harsh criticisms. But the marriage did not last long, and her mother could not return back to Iran in fear of being looked upon as a divorced woman, a curse in Iranian society.

After the divorce, Carmen and her mother remained in Switzerland. It was in Geneva that Carmen first met her husband to be, Yeslam Bin Ladin. She described him as being quiet, well dressed, and smart (later in life he used to compete with other princes on whom dressed better). Carmen soon started dating Yeslam, and humorously, she ends up getting married in a car in a parking lot in Saudi Arabia. Apparently, she was not allowed to enter the ministry building to sign the marriage papers, so the papers were brought to her whilst she sat waiting in the car. Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to mix with men, and therefore cannot enter buildings were men work. Getting married in a car was the first of the many culture shocks Carmen was to experience.

Carmen relates her life as the wife of a Bin Ladin. Mohammad Bin Ladin, the father of the Bin Ladin clan, had over 50 children and countless wives whom he kept at his compound at Kilo 7 in Jeddah. I think Kilo 7 refers to the Mecca Road, 7 being seven kilometers away from Jeddah, but someone will have to check me on that.

It is quite interesting that Mohammad Bin Laden would choose to keep all his wives together in one compound. In Islam, a man can have 4 wives at the same time. Mohammad Bin Laden therefore had to divorce a wife each time he wanted to remarry in order not to exceed the allowed quota of 4 wives. As long as one of his divorced wives did not remarry, she was allowed to stay in the compound together with her kids. It was even rumored that there was a competition going on between King Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia and Mohammad Bin Ladin on who will have more children. King Abdul-Aziz won, with over 60 children and many more wives.

Living at the Bin Ladin compound was hard for Carmen. She couldn't go shopping for she was prohibited from mixing with men. Whenever she needed something, such as a bathing suit, she had to send her driver. Eventually Safeway opened in Jeddah, and Carmen was able to go grocery shopping. She relates one instance where a group of British and American expats were all gathering at the chocolate aisle and filling their trolleys with chocolate boxes. Carmen later realized that the chocolates contained liqueur. Alcohol is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, but somehow the liqueur chocolates must have slipped by the customs officials.

Carmen's life was a reasonably happy one in the beginning. She describes her relationships with the other Bin Ladin wives; the relationship of her husband with his brothers; and of course, she talks about Osama Bin Ladin.

Apparently, Osama was a quiet man and very pious. Unlike his brothers who at first lived a lavish life and were known for their promiscuity and for being playboys, Osama never embraced the western liberal way of life. Carmen says that rumors of him having been a playboy in his younger days are just false. Even pictures allegedly showing him partying in Europe are not of him, but of his brothers who resemble him somewhat. Interestingly, she says that his brothers do not believe that he could have been capable of masterminding the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Since the Bin Ladin family was the only family given exclusive rights to renovate the two holy sites, Mecca and Medina, the family was given preferential treatment. For example, if a policeman or a member of the religious police stopped one of the Bin Ladins, all they had to say was Bin Ladin, and they were quickly released or given right of way. No one asked for their IDs. This however was not good policy, for it allowed a group of Islamists, hidden in Bin Ladin trucks (which were never searched), to attack and seize the holy Mosque in Mecca in 1979. In fact, one of the Bin Ladin brothers was arrested as a suspect in the attack, but was soon released because he was a Bin Ladin.

When Mohammad Bin Ladin died in a plane crash he was piloting, the eldest son was still in his twenties. The king therefore appointed a trustee to run the family fortune. Eventually, as the brothers grew up, they took full control of the family business. According to Carmen, her husband Yeslam was the smartest of the brothers, and this gave rise to envy and jealousy. His brothers frequently downplayed his decisions, and publicly offended him. They also took credit for many of his savvy deals that added to his family's wealth and fame. Eventually, Yeslam quit his family business, was given 300 million dollars as his share of the family wealth, and moved to Switzerland. However, his brothers, eventually recognizing his value to the family business, asked him to return.
Carmen relates how she longed to travel outside Saudi Arabia, and how she enjoyed her freedom during her trips to Switzerland and the United States. One thing I liked about Carmen is that she is a bibliophile. She piled books on her travels to read while literally imprisoned in the Bin Ladin compound in Jeddah. She read all subjects, from philosophy to politics.

Carmen describes the state of mind of the Saudi Royals during the downfall of the Shah of Iran, and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Before the Ayatollah, Saudi Arabia was moving in the right direction, becoming more liberal and westernized. However, after the Iranian revolution, with fear of it spilling to Saudi Arabia, religious fanatics gained power and turned the country into a strict religious monarchy, very much like during the Taliban in Afghanistan. Women were not allowed to drive; had to be completely covered; were discouraged of going to school; were discouraged to go in public places; were forbidden from working; were not allowed to join any health clubs or do any sports; and were raised to be subservient to their future husbands. The country suddenly moved hundreds of years backwards! Carmen, who had high hopes of living in Jeddah, had her hopes collapse. Her life was becoming unbearable in Jeddah. She longed to go back to Switzerland.

Trouble between her and her husband first started during her third pregnancy. Her husband did not want the baby, and Carmen eventually had an abortion. She describes the psychological pain she had to endure after the abortion.

When Carmen was pregnant again, her husband once more asked her to have an abortion. This time she refused, and she knew that it would be over between them. To make matters worse, she learnt that her husband was cheating on her, and she even caught him leaving one of his mistress's homes in the middle of the morning.

Carmen gives us a lot of insight into the life of her husband Yeslam. Apparently, later in his life, he acted strange, was often depressed, and complained of imaginary illnesses. He also had a fear of flying, and refused to fly alone. Like his father, his brother Salem also died while piloting his own aircraft in Texas.

I did not like the last chapter which talked about the Bin Ladins. The chapter seemed more like an attack on the Bin Ladin family, as if Carmen wanted to get back at her ex-husband. She says that the Bin Ladin family should make their secret dealings open to public scrutiny, and that their present relation with Osama should be revealed. These statements somewhat weakened her book. If she knows something we don't she should just tell us, or better still, let the CIA know. I am sure she is genuine in her last chapter (chapter 19, conclusion), but I think it is more personal and revengeful than anything else. By the way, an additional chapter was added in later editions. The book I read had the added chapter included.

Overall, this is a good read for those who want to know about Saudi society in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, and especially those wanting to learn about the Bin Ladin family. The reader should note that since King Abdullah gained the throne, Saudi Arabia has been moving forward at a tremendous speed, and the country is becoming more open, tolerant, and westernized. And kudos, women now outsmart the guys. Well done!

I just want to make clear that in Islam, women should be treated with respect. not to be held in their houses. If they need to go out somewhere, no one should stop them. It is when people start to bring their own culture and mix it with religion, that's where they go wrong. This women obviously was treated bad. But she shouldn't blame the Religion rather she should blame the culture of Saudis. I know Saudis say that 'its Islam we are practicing' but that's not Islam at all. Islam is very easy to follow its just the people who make it difficult upon themselves.

I'm certain there are a lot of books detailing the life of women in Saudi Arabia and doubtful this one is significantly different. That said, the book was very informative for someone who has had no exposure to how these women live or how the Saudi society operates, save for the media. It is a very fast read with simple sentence structure. None the less, it held my interest, so I do recommend it. My only criticism is the author did seem to have an agenda to point to Osama Bin Ladin as a terrorist, as well as the likelihood of the Saudi involvement in general, tying the Bin Ladin family and Saudi royalty together. Given this attention was given only in the initial and ending chapters, I was OK with it, though it did come across as a marketing ploy.

This book was recommended by a friend. I got it on a Sat evening and finished it by Sunday evening - could not put it down. It is very well written and despite the fact that Carmen was married to Osama Bin Laden's brother (Yeslam) there are only a few mentions of Osama - most relating to how the family revered him for his fastidious religious practices. The rest focuses on Carmen's growing dismay and final realization that, despite all the wealth that is found in Saudi Arabia it can not buy was is needed most - the modernization of the culture and end to the oppression of both women and children (especially the female children).

It is a scary book when you realize it was written in 2004 and reflects a time even 10 yrs earlier - especially when you see what's happened since then in the Middle East.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to get an insider's view of the social/cultural climate of Saudi Arabia and at least a small understanding of why they view the Western world as they do.

Kudos to Carmen Bin Ladin for her courage, dedication and love for her daughters in coming forward to putting her experiences down for all of us to read.

It was really hard to rate this book. Being a member of the society the author dedicated most of the book to criticize left me wondering what exactly she wants. We meet binladins everyday, we social with them, the binladin is a very large family and they are at the end only people. I can understand how the name "Binladin"is so appealing coz people associate it immediately to Osama binladin and I believe that's what the author aimed to do when writing this book. The author lived in Saudi Arabia so many years ago and things have changed a lot ever since. 50 years ago, women were completely illiterate with exception to basic reading and writing skills. Now, most of College's students are female. Yes, we do it our own way, we have separate colleges and universities but at the end we are well educated. The author way was so gossipy and she has no right to mention names but she did, which in my point of view makes the book just another form of "page six".
I really don't know why people are so very worried about us and about our future as Saudi women. I am a college educated woman with a professional career and a loving husband. I chose everything in my life. My study, my husband, my career, reading this book....etc. I picked this book out of curiosity just to know what Carmen wants to say.

I welcome all comments and discussions and here is my email address: hakadi@gmail.com.

Some people complain that they found a boring biography instread of depiction of secrets of Saudi kingdom. I had opposite experience : I suspected it to be meaningless book written by a shadowwriter just to make some bucks using the hype of writers last name. Actually I found the book quite interesting. The extent of misogynism described in the book is shocking beyond belief : no surprise that some societies do not treat men and women equal, but it is much harder imagine a society where some poorest kind of handyman or driver can ignore commands of (the only) wife of the billionaire they are working for, saying 'I do not take commands from women'... I do not thinks there have been many cultures in history of mankinf where lowest class males feel free to offend billionaire females because of their gender.
Some paradoxes in the books : his 'evil' husband Yeslam actually looks one of the most sane and pleasant characters in the book. While the book really decribes the life of 'opressed Saudi women', I must say most of Saudi women in the book look deeply insincere and hateful gossiping imbeciles who are in part reponsible for their own misery.

I have enjoyed reading this book although not quite sure if its all true, nevertheless its worth reading.

Carmen bin Ladin lifts the veil on the culture that produced her infamous brother-in-law.





BY DANIELLE CRITTENDEN


WSJ.com, OpinionJournal, July 29, 2004





"Osama bin Laden and those like him didn't spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. They were made. They were fashioned by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society that is closed to the outside world.





It is a society where half the population (has) had their basic rights as people amputated, and obedience to the strictest rules of Islam must be absolute.





Despite all the power of their oil-revenue, the Saudis are structured by a hateful, backward-looking view of religion and an education that is a school for intolerance . . . .When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place."








Martin Luther King, Jr.





"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it."








Pastor Martin Niemoller





First They Came ...





Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,


habe ich geschwiegen;


ich war ja kein Kommunist.





Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,


habe ich geschwiegen;


ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.





Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,


habe ich nicht protestiert;


ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.





Als sie mich holten,


gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.








When the Nazis came for the communists,


I remained silent;


I was not a communist.





When they locked up the social democrats,


I remained silent;


I was not a social democrat.





When they came for the trade unionists,


I did not speak out;


I was not a trade unionist.





When they came for me,


there was no one left to speak out.





Pastor Martin Niemoller, German Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937.

Carmen bin Ladin lifts the veil on the culture that produced her infamous brother-in-law.

BY DANIELLE CRITTENDEN
WSJ.com, OpinionJournal, July 29, 2004

"Osama bin Laden and those like him didn't spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. They were made. They were fashioned by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society that is closed to the outside world.

It is a society where half the population (has) had their basic rights as people amputated, and obedience to the strictest rules of Islam must be absolute.

Despite all the power of their oil-revenue, the Saudis are structured by a hateful, backward-looking view of religion and an education that is a school for intolerance . . . .When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place."


[...]

Her Virtual Prison

Carmen bin Ladin lifts the veil on the culture that produced her infamous brother-in-law.

BY DANIELLE CRITTENDEN
WSJ OpinionJournal, July 29, 2004

"Osama bin Laden and those like him didn't spring, fully formed, from the desert sand. They were made. They were fashioned by the workings of an opaque and intolerant medieval society that is closed to the outside world.

It is a society where half the population (has) had their basic rights as people amputated, and obedience to the strictest rules of Islam must be absolute.

Despite all the power of their oil-revenue, the Saudis are structured by a hateful, backward-looking view of religion and an education that is a school for intolerance . . . .When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it."

Reverend Martin Niemoller

"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then, they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew ... Then they came for the Catholics. I didn't speak up then because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up."

German Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937.

I find Carmen's word choice to be a bit odd. However I do have to admit, this book kept me occupied for a few days on and off.

I found Jean Sassoon's "Princess" three-part trilogy more interesting in its depiction of life for women inside Saudi Arabia. Carmen Bin Ladin's book also takes the perspective of a foreign national, so it is somewhat skewed in that regard.

If a princess and wealthy foreign woman can suffer so much under the strict Saudi regime, just imagine what hardships underprivileged Saudi women must face.

One author did just that, and in a recently released novel set in contemporary Saudi Arabia, follows the tribulations of a fictional Saudi heroine. The book is called "Saudi Match Point" from Blacksmith Books. It's a quick, informative, and enjoyable read.

Inside the Kingdom garnered much favourable verbiage from the international press upon its debut: "Shady business dealings, power struggles...Carmen reveals the intimate secrets of the most powerful clan in Saudi Arabia"; "... makes a fiery case against the oppression and fanaticism....of Saudi society..."; "...her struggle to cope with rules and strictures as suffocating as the desert climate."

Perhaps the media didn't read the same book as I. In any case, the hype raised my expectations and ruined for me what otherwise might have been an interesting personal chronicle.

While I don't mean to belittle Carmen bin Ladin's emotional distress or her very real concern for the safety of her daughters, this is little more than a gossipy memoir from a poor little rich girl who marries a handsome young man she barely knows and has difficulty adjusting to life with the in-laws. Her failing marriage and determination to retain custody of her children would interest no one, if not for the fact that her husband's brother is the infamous Osama bin Ladin.

This book has nothing new about Saudi Arabia or the conditions under which women there live and nothing particularly revealing about Osama bin Ladin, beyond a few cameo appearances in the role of tyrannical husband. Carmen also fails to convey any sense of depth to her marriage and personal relationship with her husband, Yeslam, who comes across as a remote stick figure. Perhaps for legal reasons she is being careful.

While she devotes several admiring pages to her father-in-law, the 22-times married Mohamed, the anecdotes are all second hand; he was already dead when Carmen came to Saudi Arabia.

There are brief hints and glimpses into the lives of other women - her friends and sisters-in-law --but Carmen never gets below the surface. "Saudi women don't open their lives to each other", she says. A pity! It might have been a better book if they had.

Inside the Kingdom garnered much favourable verbiage from the international press upon its debut: "Shady business dealings, power struggles...Carmen reveals the intimate secrets of the most powerful clan in Saudi Arabia"; "... makes a fiery case against the oppression and fanaticism....of Saudi society..."; "...her struggle to cope with rules and strictures as suffocating as the desert climate."

Perhaps the media didn't read the same book as I. In any case, the hype raised my expectations and ruined for me what otherwise might have been an interesting personal chronicle.

While I don't mean to belittle Carmen bin Ladin's emotional distress or her very real concern for the safety of her daughters, this is little more than a gossipy memoir from a poor little rich girl who marries a handsome young man she barely knows and has difficulty adjusting to life with the in-laws. Her failing marriage and determination to retain custody of her children would interest no one, if not for the fact that her husband's brother is the infamous Osama bin Ladin.

This book has nothing new about Saudi Arabia or the conditions under which women there live and nothing particularly revealing about Osama bin Ladin, beyond a few cameo appearances in the role of tyrannical husband. Carmen also fails to convey any sense of depth to her marriage and personal relationship with her husband, Yeslam, who comes across as a remote stick figure. Perhaps for legal reasons she is being careful.

While she devotes several admiring pages to her father-in-law, the 22-times married Mohamed, the anecdotes are all second hand; he was already dead when Carmen came to Saudi Arabia.

There are brief hints and glimpses into the lives of other women - her friends and sisters-in-law --but Carmen never gets below the surface. "Saudi women don't open their lives to each other", she says. A pity! It might have been a better book if they had.

I listened to the audio version and found it very easy to listen to (as opposed to some CDs where I find the written version to be superior to the oral one). As mentioned, the author is a sister-in-law of Osama Bin Laden. While the author does make a few comments on Osama, she mostly focuses on life for the Saudi woman. The audio/book will mostly appeal to those who haven't heard very much description of life for women in Saudi Arabia. For those who are familiar with the female Saudi lifestyle with its narrow and rigid restrictions, the ideas will be not so novel.

I listened to the audio version and found it very easy to listen to (as opposed to some CDs where I find the written version to be superior to the oral one). As mentioned, the author is a sister-in-law of Osama Bin Laden. While the author does make a few comments on Osama, she mostly focuses on life for the Saudi woman. The audio/book will mostly appeal to those who haven't heard very much description of life for women in Saudi Arabia. For those who are familiar with the female Saudi lifestyle with its narrow and rigid restrictions, the ideas will be not so novel.

This book opened my eyes to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia - even wealthy women. I passed it on to all the women in my family because I found it interesting and very educational.

The fact that Carmen Bin Ladin has a notorius brother-in law called Osama is a motivation to read this book.
Carmen who is half Swiss and half Persian was raised in the west and, on marriage, became part of a culture she neither knew or understood.

Carmen flourished in her western education and freedoms for women and determined to protect her daughters from the restriction in a Saudi society riddled with hyprocracy and contradiction. Her husband was a powerful influential man and through him, Carmen gained an intimidate knowledge of a poweerful, secretive kingdom. This was most unusual for a woman.

Her unravelling of life in this Saudi kingdom is an eye opener to her struggles with a backward-looking view of religion and an education that fosters intolerance. Her struggle with the scorn for what is foreign and the non-muslim is captivating. The book really highlights Carmen's fight to be true to herself and to give her daughters priceless freedom of thought.

I purchased what I thought were two different books by Carmen Bin Ladin - "Inside the kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia" and "The veiled Kingdom". The first was a hard cover and the second a paper back . However, they were the same book under different names!

Dr Ken Williams

Carmen bin Laden is a pampered Swiss of Persian decent who married Osama bin Laden's half brother. Her well paced book presents an interesting story but one that seems to be missing some parts. Westerners such as myself are shocked by Saudi customs, but marrying into the family and moving to Saudi Arabia were choices she freely made. It seemed to me that the book was moving toward a climax, but Carmen briefly wraps up the last few years of her life by saying that she did not want to discuss details.

I had always been very curious about the way Saudi women lived. This book sheds light into a medieval way of life where women have absolutely no rights. As the author put it herself, they are amputated of their very basic rights from the time of birth. It's truly shocking to realize that the freedom some Western women have the privilege to enjoy is not shared by many Muslim countries. To think that they feel protected by being denied their basic rights is, in my opinion, very shocking as well. Every woman should read this book.

Carmen Bin Ladin is an amazing and strong woman to write her story. After September 11th and the war that followed, so many books have come out about Islam and the Middle East.The books have ranged from attacks on Islam to support of Islam and everything in between. What Carmen Bin Ladin has done with her story is show us the life of one woman in that world. How can we deny her story when it is hers?
I read this book in one sitting. I felt for Carmen as she began to realize the man she loved, married, and had children with could no longer be her husband. How hard that must have been for her. But what a truly loving and strong mother to give her daugthers what their female relatives in Saudi Arabia and women in general in the Middle East will never have: freedom to be women.

An absorbing and at times tragic account of a half-Swiss, half-Persian woman who married into the Bin Ladin clan. The actress who reads this book is superb, and really brings the listener into the narrative.

You won't learn much about Osama, who the author only encountered a couple times. But you will learn about the author's experience in a rapidly-changing Saudi Arabia from the early 1970s onward, and her feelings about being a woman in Saudi society. 1979 was an especially pivotal year, with the hostage crisis at U.S. Embassy Tehran/Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and assassination of the U.S. Ambassador there, the storming of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the Shia intifada in eastern Saudi Arabia. Listening to this audiobook, you can really feel the mood of those times.

Most tragic is what the author's husband put her through.

Having lived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for over a year I understand and remember the limitations I felt inside this "Magic kingdom". Saudi Arabia is a place where men have it very easy and women are the responsibility of their husbands and fathers/brothers.

Carmen Bin Laden is a conscious writer and someone who understands the challenges of living and being married to someone in the kingdom. Recently living in the Kingdom has become much more tolerable however it is still a dictatorship and not a monarchy just as Carmen describes.

This book is an intelligent, page-turning treatise of the enslaving of women and other horrific dangers of Sharia law and extreme Islamic fundamentalism. I am saddened by the forced lifestyles of women and girls in so much of Saudi Arabia. I am frightened by the implications. If you want to understand the threat of the spread of this intolerant way of life to basic freedom, please read this book and give it to your friends.

The title of my review says it all. Moslems don't think of women as people. I loved the book as it confirmed everything negative about Islam the "Religion of Peace." Yeah, right.

Ever read Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tail"? I read it three years ago, and all I could think of throughout Carmen's book, was that the Saudi society was a current version of an otherwise fantastical society created by Margaret Atwood. My nine year old daughter befriended an Egyptian girl in Northern California, and she witnessed many of these attitudes in this girl's home. My daughter strived to understand, and I'm not sure I was ever able to completely explain her friend's docility and lack of spirit in the presence of men. Her friend was literally frightened by my husband if he entered the room. When my daughter invited her over one evening to visit, the hunger she exhibited for friendship was heart-wrenching. She seemed to float on air when she said goodbye at the end of the evening, knowing she had a friend. Unfortunately, we soon moved, and I still think of her and hope she has a friend.

The book is an interesting read, however, there is nothing about it that would make me think about world affairs. It talks about a culture and its nuances. It discusses how the life of the "free" thinking author was put on hold because of the society she was living in and how she felt sorry for women in SA because of their way of life. One of the oddities of this book is that the author talks of nothing but her so called positives while on the other hand has a rather condescending air towards others.

Towards the end she talks about how the alimony alloted to her is less than that of her ex-husbands pilots, yet she continues to fight. Life is tough and you make choices based on your own priorities. I know of a Latino woman, who married a Saudi man in Florida, had two kids and when they divorced she got nothing and this was through the US courts. So, why should Carmen be the only one we feel sorry for. Her daughter is making a full blown spectacle of her self because in order to remove themselves from the Bin Laden name, they feel that they must prove to the world how "modern" they are in their thinking. Yet, they want that money!!! They know nothing about that demon uncle of theirs, and have never met him. Hence this book is anything but a reflection on what the future holds, but is more about - "booh hoo, my life stinks, I got the shorter end of the stick, i was not allowed to think, I could have ruled the world but SA culture held me back!!" She could have left him earlier, but did not....makes me wonder how much of a role money played.

Interesting read if you want to pry in to the life of someone, but certainly not what I had expected.

I really enjoyed this book. I was fascinated by the background information I was given about Saudi Arabia and the family of Osama Bin Ladin. Carmen has lived an exciting yet scary life, which she shares with the readers. I have passed this book around, and everyone who has read Carmen's book has enjoyed it. I love to read, and I have a ton of books piled up, so if I don't like a book, I won't finish it. I really had trouble putting this book down.

My family and I lived in Saudi in the early to mid-80s. What Carmen bin Laden wrote is factual and we experienced what she did, even as expats. I was hoping for more insight but frankly, one has to read between the lines. It was an easy read, and provides real but limited insight into the kingdom for those who know little about life in Saudi.

I could not put this book down. It is an eye opening account of the opressions faced by women in Saudi Arabia. She also emphasizes the hypocrisy of wealthy Saudi men who study in the west, clearly revel in western freedoms and then return to SA to decry the western infidel. In the final chapters, Carmen includes dire warnings about the future of western freedoms we tend to take for granted as fundamental Islam spreads.

This book gives a good picture of what the very wealthy peole live like in the country, but it doesn't include the ordinary people. It gives no idea of what the average person in Saudi Arabia thinks and does. John

What a read. I couldn't put it down. It gives a terrific insight into life in another country. You will appreciate the freedom that we, as women, have in the United States. It makes one really understand our free agency as women in America. Carmen faced so many trial that we take for granted and yet made the decision she felt best for her family. Don't miss it. We passed the book around and every one of the five women readers raved about the book.

I picked up this book last year after I saw an interview with Carmen Bin Ladin's daughter on a cable news channel thinking that it would an interesting story.

The book describes Carmen Bin Ladin's courtship, marriage, and (subsequent) divorce to the older brother of serial-terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Although the book is interesting in some passages, it is also predictable; it seemed obvious that Carmen would eventually leave her emotionally-crippled husband because she was a modernized women raised in Switzerland who wanted to lead her own life. The book also seemed somewhat careless, choppy, and rushed. Carmen Bin Ladin just breezed through the last few chapters so she could complete the book. It would have been a much better read if it were longer (only 206 pages total) and included more detail and insight from the author.

Three stars and that is still being generous.

If you're interested in reading about Saudi/Middle East culture then I recommend anything by Jean Sasson whoes books are light-years more superior than Ms. Carmen Bin Ladin's.

I found this book to be very enlightening in pointing out the impasse between the western world and the Saudi way of life. Carmen's descriptions of life in Saudi Arabia mirror what I have read from Jean Sasson's books about Princess Sultana; I can't believe anyone would consider books these fiction! The experiences described in the book made me think about the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia, and also lead me to be concerned over the expansion of fundamentalist Islam.

Compelling story and hard to fathom that life could be so different in this day and age.

In this well written, concise autobiography, Bin Laden goes beyond the usual "ain't it awful" stories about women's lives in the Islamic world. With eloquence showing deep reflection, she tells the history of the Kingdom and explains the conditions of women who practice Wahhabi Islam or who live under its power.

Lucky for us that Carmen had girls and the courage to change her children's destiny. Would she have left if she had had boys? (Who knows?) I ask myself--am I doing all that I can to ensure that my children's destiny include freedom of thought? Thanks, Carmen, for speaking out and for challenging us to fight for freedom of thought.
The book was a fascinating read. It was a breeze to read. The message, however, was more complex. The fact is that terrorism is here and here to stay. What are we as westerners going to do about it?

I wrote a review of this book about a year ago and I praised Carmen Bin Ladin for having the guts to spill so much insider information on the culture and family of Saudi Arabia.

But now I'm reading an even better book, an advanced preview copy of "DIARY OF A LOST GIRL", which is the autobiography of Osama Bin Laden's mistress, Kola Boof.

WOW!

Talk about a pageturner that totally presents an image of Osama Bin Laden that I would never have imagined, but at the same time, believe very deeply is true.

I seriously enjoyed Carmen's book, but I do believe this one is more detailed and since Kola Boof knew Osama much longer than Carmen, it's quite fascinating reading about his sexual and hunting and fishing habits, as well as his physical ailments.

If you really want to know about Bin Laden as a "MAN", then you need to read Kola Boof's "Diary of a Lost Girl". It's exceptionally good.