Mayada Al Askari was born in Iraq, in 1955, to a prominent Iraqi family, and is the granddaughter of Jido Sati, an important Iraqi politician and statesman in the first half of the 20th century, and of former Iraqi Prime Minister Jafar al-Askari.
This biography tells of her experiences growing up in the hellish cage of Baathist Iraq under Saddam Hussein's rule of fear.
Mayada was born, grew up, was married in, and gave birth to two children in Iraq.
She detested the Hitler of the Euphrates Saddam Hussein, and her one dream in life was to live to see the end of his rule.
The author Jean Sassoon visited a children's ward in a Baghdad hospital with Mayada, and knew that Saddam, who brought on the wares and sanctions, was the reason for these children's suffering. Saddam was so eager to lay the blame for infant deaths on the sanctions that he was known to hold back medicine from the hospitals- he might, for example, allow only one cancer drug to be issued for leukemia patients, who clearly required tow or three different drugs to battle certain cancers.
Saddam was also known to have placed empty baby coffins on the street to inflame world opinion against the United States (The international left lapping up Saddam's propaganda with enthusiasm , while never one uttering a word against his genocidal reign of terror).
Mayada ran a printing shop and was arrested on false charges that opposition material had been printed with her facilities.
She was imprisoned in Baladiyat, the headquarters of Saddam's secret police which also served as a prison cell.
Here she was tortured and witnessed deaths and maiming of the women in her cell by the most horrific tortures.
Many of these were imprisoned for no certified reason at all, and another was imprisoned, for example, for organizing a litter cleaning campaign, as this was then seen as an implicit criticism of the Saddam regime's administration.
Every woman was taken at least once a day for a torture session.
These women were beaten, whipped, burned, mutilated, dismembered, and gassed and electrocuted.
One method used was to insert a pipe into the victim and burn their insides with gas.
Were where the hypocritical 'anti-war' activists who hysterically pour venom against President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair for liberating Iraq, when Saddam was torturing his own people and murdering hundreds of thousands of others.
When American forces humiliated Iraqi Baathists, involved in terror, while doing nothing like what Saddam's cohorts did to thousands, the international left and media broke again into hysteria, but where were they when Saddam was involved in perpetration of these horrors.
In true Orwellian style they compared President Bush and Blair to Hitler when it was so clear that Saddam was the Hitler of the equation, and millions of Iraqis were jubilant at Saddam's downfall. The book, through detailing Mayada's conversation with some of her fellow prisoners, relates the cruelty of the Saddam Hussein family, including Saddam's torture and starvation of a pet dog, tied up next to a pool of water while being killed with thirst, all the while being given electric shocks by Saddam's sadistic son, Uday.
Everyone who has ever had an interest or comment in the Iraq War or who says that they do not know why President Bush removed Saddam would do well to educate themselves on something of Saddam's excesses.
This book gives us an insight but it is only the tip of the iceberg of the horrors perpetrated by the Saddam regime.

Mayada is an essential book for any historian of what the United States is actually doing in Iraq. The history is fascinating, and Mayada bears witness to horrible suffering in one of the most perverted dictatorships since that of Idi Amin.

That being said, there are a few criticisms. The author attempts to mix Mayada's account of her time in an Iraqi prison with flashbacks as an attempt to put the Iraqi situation into the appropriate context. This could easily be done -- as has Daniel Jonah Goldhagen in Hitler's Willing Executioners. I don't think that the author is successful so sometimes the reader is left with the feeling that some organization was necessary.

That doesn't change the fact that every American should read this book.

I am an Iraqi woman and I read this book. It is complete non-sense. She clearly was one of the people who got the greatest advantage of Saddam Hussein being in power. Don't you read that in between the lines? She met Saddam and Chemical Ali (she wrote an article in an Iraqi magazine about how handsome Ali was, and how great his personality was). You are no "oppressed woman" if you are allowed in the presence of these criminals and murderers. She knew every single powerful man then! In Iraq, you couldn't get that close if you were not the first one who cheered and clapped for that brutal system. Ask me about Iraqis who really suffered, not this woman! She probably wants to get another high rank in the new government and that is why she is listing her "suffering" story. This woman didn't suffer, she was one of the most pampered women during Saddam Hussein's time and she will still be pampered no matter how the Iraqi government changes. If you really want to read about the suffering of Iraqi women, read the book named "Baghdad Burning". It is a stunning book that is wonderfully written and truly depicts how everybody still suffers in Iraq.

wow...what a book. could not put it down. if you want to know what living under the regime of saddam was like this says it all!! these women were so courageous. the imprisonment of women, children and men and what they suffered is in grafic details here. this is a story that breaks your heart. should be must reading for all. shocking shocking read. my thoughts are still with these women and what has become of them. this is the fourth book by this author i have read; each book has been a page turner. this one the most disturbing. but they are all written as if you are right there at the moment and watching it with your own eyes, it is so discriptive. that this is a real story is horrifing!!!

When it comes to autobiographical or biographical books, like this one, and the events recounted are mainly dramatic and very sad, the impulse is to rate it with 5 stars. However, I find that this particular book, or rather, its narrative, seems to be lacking that something or other which would put the whole thing into a more tangible perspective. Of course one cannot but sympathise with Mayada and all the "shadow women" and what they went through as described (imprisonment and torture in Iraq).

However this time, and unlike some previous work I read by the same author, I felt that the book lacks in substance a bit, some points have not been explained clearly and, in my opinion, the frequent descriptions of Mayada's fortunate background blur some more fundamental issues.

This is the third book by Sasson that I have read. They appear to be somewhat of a formula with a certain story line and something titilating added. I believe that she ran out of material for her Saudi Princess books and so has now went to Irag. Considering the state of affairs in the middle east, I believe that she would not be able to write the truth of the womens lives, as if she did, she would be unable to live there.

If there is any question in your mind why we are in Iraqi fighting what seems a useless war then read this book.
I agree that it is time for our soilders to come home. We have done our part. This books explains why we needed to go better than anything any politician could say.
Mayada and all the shadow women, known and unknown, suffered as much as the Jewish people did under Hitler. I hope Saddam and Adolph are getting back what they gave tenfold in their corner of hell.

It is easy to speak about the war in Iraq when safe and well-fed. But Mayada's story of prison and torture in Saddam's Iraq is a powerful testimony calling for justice against a regime that ranks with Stalin in brutality. Mayada's account covers everything from rubbing shoulders with Saddam and others in his entourage to meeting falsely accused prisoners undergoing incredible torture and humiliation. She exposes life inside Iraq from the luxurious elite to the oppressed victims, revealing fear and tyranny that Westerners can only imagine. Despite the troubles in post-Saddam Iraq, Mayada exclaims that despite the current strife Iraq is better off now that Saddam is gone. After reading her story, I couldn't agree with her more.

It is easy to speak about the war in Iraq when safe and well-fed. But Mayada's story of prison and torture in Saddam's Iraq is a powerful testimony calling for justice against a regime that ranks with Stalin in brutality. Mayada's account covers everything from rubbing shoulders with Saddam and others in his entourage to meeting falsely accused prisoners undergoing incredible torture and humiliation. She exposes life inside Iraq from the luxurious elite to the oppressed victims, revealing fear and tyranny that Westerners can only imagine. Despite the troubles in post-Saddam Iraq, Mayada exclaims that despite the current strife Iraq is better off now that Saddam is gone. After reading her story, I couldn't agree with her more.

As the author vividly shows in her books, the Middle East is not a fair place for women. As with her earlier books about Saudi Arabia, Sasson shows the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. This regime tortured and killed people regardless of whether they were Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, women, men or children. This was an evil regime. The author through Mayada tells of the torture regime of Saddam. One can only wish that Saddam could get the same deal while he awaits his fait.

I read this book with the expectation it would show something more about Iraqi society. What I got was the story of Mayada and her family story. One wonders how life is for the poor Iraqi women, who have no connections in the government. Other than that, a nice read about the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein.

As the author vividly shows in her books, the Middle East is not a fair place for women. As with her earlier books about Saudi Arabia, Sasson shows the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. This regime tortured and killed people regardless of whether they were Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, women, men or children. This was an evil regime. The author through Mayada tells of the torture regime of Saddam. One can only wish that Saddam could get the same deal while he awaits his fait.

I read this book with the expectation it would show something more about Iraqi society. What I got was the story of Mayada and her family story. One wonders how life is for the poor Iraqi women, who have no connections in the government. Other than that, a nice read about the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein.

found this book very interesting to read. Especially the episodes in the prison regarding the reasons' why Iraqi people were taken into prison.
Mayada life and aspects into the introduction of her family were excellent. I feel one needs to learn about the aspects and privelages a person has and how they deal with things their own way. The insight into the Sadam Hussian political system was interesting and very sad at times. This is just a small chapter in what went on in Iraq under sadam. It will be interesting to see how other people and families suffered in Iraq.
I found this book to be a smooth read. This was one of those hard to eplain books-that have a meaning that goes beyond certain adgenda's and political cruelty when playing games becomes normal for the people that give the pain. For the receiver it becomes the pain of leaving children, parents, siblings behind and getting roped into a political system that never seems to end.

Middle Eastern based book about a journalist who is arrested for doing nothing wrong. I can't put any of Jean Sasson's books down. This book does flip back and forth a lot, but the way it's written out makes it an easy read. Not for those who get riled up because of injustices in society.

Marina Kushner
Author
The Truth About Caffeine: How Companies That Promote It Deceive Us and What We Can Do about It

This book is about one woman's experiences living in Iraq. She's arrested and as she is in jail, she reflects upon her life in Iraq and shares some of her experiences with the shadow women.
Conditions in the prison were very harsh, and while she is tortured, the writer manages to convey the horror of the torture in the prison without being disturbingly graphic.
Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. I had to read through to Mayada's conclusion.
It's been four days since I read this book and the story has stayed with me.
This book is a one woman's view of what living in Iraq has been like over the course of her lifetime. It's a very moving book.

While quickly scanning through my local paper as so often is my usual nature, my eyes came upon a column written by a woman whose last name was Parker. This columnist related some brief information about the book and the author. She was reading it herself. It went on to say that no other networks besides Fox cared to grant Mayada an interview which made me wonder why. Why was she less important than some other trivial interviews which had so often been done before? Did they think that most of us could not determine for ourselves if we wanted to read her book after listening to her own voice? After reading a little from it here on Amazon, the thirst for more was too strong.
Jean Sasson allows this woman to speak to all who will explore its pages. We did not choose where we were born. What if Iraq had been our home? That fact was not far from my mind as the words on its pages pulled me inside further and further like a helpless fish on a hook. Mayada tells the stories of others whom she met while in prison. As one reads through this book, how can the heart not be touched? Mayada is the best one to speak for those in that prison cell who had no voice. You are drawn into the quicksand of humanity to which there seems no excape until it is completely read. As you read it, imagine what if you had been there in that prison? What crime had she committed that brought her to that place? What kind of treatment would she receive? Would her children be told where she had been taken? How long and by what method would she get out of there? These were questions which needed to be answered. Only by me reading it could they be answered. There is history for the historian. There is poverty for the impoverished ones. There is riches for the wealthy. There is is religion for the religious. There is cruelty for those who are cruel. All these elements can be found inside this book by Jean P. Sasson concerning Mayada Daughter of Iraq

For those who do not curse nor like to read such words, the cursing is limited to three incidents of the same word. The word "God" is used more than the other curse word in a way of disrespect that may offend Christians who revere the name. Understand who and why these individuals are using these words. They are used in a historical way.

When glancing over the various comments, I can't help but be startled at Sean 44 stating "Freqent reference to GW goal of liberation Iraq was annoying." That's a very misleading and even untrue statement Sean. Other than the last few pages of the book, the entire book is set several years before the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam. Not a word of "liberation" is mentioned because no one even knew such a thing would happen in 1999 when Mayada was imprisoned and later fled her country. The last few pages of the book deal with Mayada's reaction to Saddam being toppled, and her glee that happened and her happiness that SOMEBODY got rid of Saddam. She wouldn't have cared if it were the French, the English, or even a coup in the country, she lived in Iraq for her entire life and saw what his rule had done for her country and countrymen... She simply wanted him GONE... Although everyone is disappointed in the turn of events and the ongoing violence, few would want Saddam back. There were too many people who suffered dreadfully under Saddam, and if they lived there, they are the ones who have the rights to express an opinion on Saddam. So, don't write such misleading statements. One would think the book was filled with GW topics, but that is NOT the case. It is a book about some very brave women who suffered horribly in Cell 52. If you don't like the book, then that is just fine, as everyone has a right to their opinion, but to say something completely false for the obvious purpose to mislead other readers, that is not your right. And, I should know that the book does NOT have "frequent reference to GW goal of liberating Iraq," because I am the one who wrote the book! Those feelings shared by Mayada are only in the very last few pages of the book, and she certainly had a right to express her opinion in a book written about her!
And I'm giving the book 5 stars because of the brave women I wrote about... They all deserve 5 stars for courage!

Based on the reviews I was expecting this book to really draw me in, but I found myself skimming parts hoping I'd move on to something more interesting. Some of the stories are absolutely heartbreaking, but the reviewer below is right when he calls it a "hodgepodge" with no character development. The book is OK, but nothing great, and the frequent reference to GW Bush's goal of 'liberating Iraq' is annoying to say the least.

i have read h. hassan's review and am perplexed. perhaps my memory is more receptive but i remember the names of the real women(not characters) in cell 52 together with the real sufferings reported in the book. mayada symbolises the sufferings of the noble iraqi people and their victory over tyranny.the book vividly recounts the humiliation suffered by young and old due to the whims of the hot air filled dictators
who used atrocious violence to keep themselves in power. but real life is a circle. the mighty are fallen and are now seen in their real guise. how many of us knew what was really going on in Iraq? i recomend this book to anybody who has real freedom at heart.

Let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of Jean P. Sasson, and I that absolutely loved her other works. That being said, this book was an utter disappointment and waste of time. I am shocked to see how many other reviewers gave this 5 stars.

This book was titled Mayada, Daughter of Iraq but would have been better suited as a collection of anti-Saddam stories. Don't get me wrong, I too believe that he is ruthless and cold hearted, but that is not the reason I picked up this book. I was expecting a good an interesting story about one woman's life in Iraq. Not at all. It is more of a disorganized, hodgepodge, tell as many horror stories as possible, type of book. I guess if you are reading this as a way to reaffirm that America is doing the right thing in Iraq, it might be a good pick. I don't doubt that the stories in it are true, but I could have also picked up a newspaper or watched the news if I wanted the same type of read.

As far as an interesting or stimulating piece of literature, this book falls flat on its face. The characters are so poorly developed, that I can't even remember any of their names (expect of course, Mayada), and it has only been a few days since I read it. I just did not feel any sort of connection with any of the `Shadow Women'. I cringed at reading what happened to them, but completely out of disgust, and not at all out of solidarity. It did not intrigue me at all, and I probably would not have even bothered to finish it if I wasn't such a fan of the author. I had hoped for a redeeming ending, but that too was a disappointment.

Required reading for all Americans or at least for those with doubts about U.S actions in Iraq. Sadam has inflicted pain and suffering on the people of Iraq far too long.

The power of this book can really change your views on certain things. It's shocking, it's moving and foremost, it's thought-provoking. How can people pushed to the extremes keep their humanity? Is love and faith always enough to survive? Jean Sasson tells a real story of times and places, where there was no such thing as humanity. One had to become a beast, to be saved from another Beast. Everyone should read the book to truly appreciate his/her life in "comfort zone" and learn the story of those, who weren't allowed to breathe.

Every Senator and Congressmen should be required to read this book and then decide on the policies before them. This book is instructional for anyone who doubts the U.S. presence in Iraq. The torture that Iraqis were so accustomed are absolutely criminal here. Women should be the leaders in saving the women who are regarded as chattle anywhere on Earth. Or are the rights of women solely for the American. Thank you Jean for your writing so we can see the undeserved misery of others in a world we can not veture into. I am hoping for another book soon with an update on the women of cell 52! Let us know.

I read the book last year. It's a must read for everyone who wants to know more about the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.

[...]

Everyone in America should read this book now. We have so few reliable sources for inside information about Iraqi rule under Sadaam. The book is a well written, easy to read story that relates an Iraqi woman's shocking story and the inconceivable story of those around her. Mayada, a journalist, is from a legendary, well-connected family that has endured generations of political upheaval until she and her family finally fled their beloved Iraq after living under the horrors of an atrocious dictator. While in prison, Mayada mind-escapes by evoking Iraqi history and the stories of her many acquaintances and family members, including her own experiences with Sadaam, his regime, and his son, Uday. I couldn't put it down without thinking about Mayada and it has certainly wetted my appetite to read more on Iraq.

Daughter of Iraq by Jean Sasson was an incredible book. It shocked me to read about the horrors Mayada and the shadow women had to endure. This book was very descriptive yet confusing at times. Jean Sasson did a lot of jumping around. I would sometimes get a little confuse about what was going on because she would reflect on Mayada's past/family a lot. Overall, this book was a great read and I was so anxious to finish it. With every chapter I wanted to know more and more about these women, I ended up finishing this book in 2 days!!!

I have read Sassoon's Princess books and this book was as well written as they were. It is extremely interesting and I recommend it to anyone interested in a woman's life in Iraq prior to the fall of Saddam.

"Gulag Archipelago" parted the dark curtains to show the horrors of the communist Soviet Union. Both illusions and delusions in the west could no longer be sustained after its publication. Daughter of Iraq Mayada projects the horrors of Sadam's Iraq for all to see. Even the great families of Iraq were not safe from the cruel regime. Their only hope was feeble grasps by influence denied the vast unprotected Iraqi people. If there is in anyone's mind a question of if this war was just, read "Daughter of Iraq." The Bathist insanity, and the gravest of insanity it was from prison guard to the President, could only be ended by the overwhelming force of arms from outside. The Iraqi's themselves could only hope, often with no hope, to survive the terror to see the next day. What a noble woman to tell the true story of herself and other victims she crossed paths with. Victims whose only voice from the sands of death are Mayada, the daughter of heros, a heroine herself.

this is the type of book which makes your hair stand...
it shows the horrible story of a woman who lived is saddam hussien's rule.
it shows how inhuman someone can get...
a must-read!

By horrible I'm referring to the things that Iraqis have had to endure since they were formed into a nation - all in the name of greed or different people wanting to come into power. First a royal family was killed, then the Baathist party toppled the government, Saddam Hussein came into power, there was the Iraq-Iran war, the crippling sanctions (imposed by the U.S.), and now the Iraq invasion.

Mayada Al-Askari is a granddaughter of a famous Arab, who is thought of as "the father of modern Arab" - Sati Al-Husri. In fact, most of Mayada's family was either diplomats or had connections throughout the Arab world.

This book is about how under Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, there was a secret police that would arrest any Iraqi who said anything bad about Saddam Hussein or in most cases - did nothing illegal at all. The ways the people are tortured by the secret police is barbaric. It's hard to imagine human beings would do that to other human beings. This book details Mayada's stay in Baladiyat prison with other "shadow women". In between, this book also weaves in great stories about Iraq's history and Mayada's family.

For some good reading on Saddam Hussein and the hardships of the sanctions- Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein is good or going to the United Nations website and searching about Iraq sanctions. For other great books by Jean Sassoon - any book in the Princess trilogy is wonderful.