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Stolen Lives Twenty Years in a Desert Jail Oprah Book Club Malika Oufkir 9780786886302 Books

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Stolen Lives Twenty Years in a Desert Jail Oprah Book Club Malika Oufkir 9780786886302 Books

I saw an interview with Malika Oufkir on Oprah Winfrey's show and was so taken by her courage, her incredible spiritual strength and the unbelievable horror of her tale, that I felt I had to know more. I found this version to be an inspiring testimony to the human spirit but also an honest account of the terrible toll of this family's ordeal, leaving one brother "a permanent child" in Malika's own words, a brother who found adjusting to a normal, free life nearly impossible and who is still suffering the effects of his imprisonment.For their part, Oufkir and her sisters were left suspicious of men, emotionally scarred by what they survived...and yet they also managed to find the strength to serve as witnesses to their injustice and to find the courage to speak out. This is one of the most inspiring true-life accounts I've read in the last year and one I'd put on any "must read" list. If you dont know the details of Oufkir's story, here's a brief summary: At the age of 5, Malika Oufkir, eldest daughter of General Oufkir, was adopted by King Muhammad V of Morocco, a man who wanted an available playmate for his young daughter. While in the palace, Oufkir led a life of a fairy princess, in total luxury --- until her father was found guilty of treason as part of a coup to overthrow the new regime (led by King Hassan II). Malika's father was executed and she, her mother and her brother and sisters were immediately imprisoned. From one day to the next, Oufkir went from luxury to a struggle for her very existence, living in conditions that you can't believe until you read about it. There were times when one or the other would try and commit suicide (her brother when he was only 7) or be forced to eat food drenched in rat urine. And yet they DID persevere and manage to escape to tell their tale. Please don't assume that the grim details in this book (and I won't pull any punches; there are parts of this book that are difficult to read0 take away from the inspiration to be found here. After finishing this book, I actually felt uplifted and was amazed that I did, buoyed by the fact that this family went through such horror and yet managed to find the courage to survive - and then to tell about it.


Tags : Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club) [Malika Oufkir] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller--the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953,Malika Oufkir,Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club),Miramax,0786886307,Literary,Political prisoners;Morocco;Biography.,Women political prisoners;Morocco;Biography.,1953-,Africa - General,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography General,Biography & Autobiography Literary,Biography & Autobiography Political,Biography & Autobiography Women,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Morocco,Oufkir, Malika,,Personal Memoirs,Women,Women political prisoners

Stolen Lives Twenty Years in a Desert Jail Oprah Book Club Malika Oufkir 9780786886302 Books Reviews

This is one of the most wrenching tales of human rights abuse I have ever read, and I have read many.
The author's father, Gen. Muhammed Oufkir, was a high-ranking, wealthy, and widely-feared minister in the government of Morocco who had been convicted in France of masterminding a political murder in the "Ben Barka affair". Years later, in the event that preciptated the story in this book, Oufkir attempted to kill King Hassan II of Morocco in a coup that failed. For this crime he was subsequently murdered. (One would say "executed" except that it was without benefit of trial.) Had matters ended there, it would have been a tragedy for Oufkir's family, who were totally innocent of involvement in their father's affairs, but the events would have largely been forgotten outside of Morocco.
However, things did not end there. King Hassan II was apparently not satisfied with Oufkir's death, because he subsequently ordered Ofkir's entire innocent family -- wife, daughters, sons (including a 3-year old) -- to be rounded up and imprisoned (also without benefit of trial), along with a couple of supremely loyal family friends/staff who insisted on accompanying them to prison.
At first the imprisonment was physically bearable; but over time they were transferred to more and more squalid conditions in ever more remote locations. They were eventually forced to spend almost 20 years as prisoners, more than 10 of them totally incommunicado, in solitary confinement, in complete darkness, in rat-and vermin- infested cells, on a starvation diet, with no medical care, and under conditions that can only be described as mental and physical torture.
During all that time the prisoners, including the mother, the author (who started as a teenager) and the others all the way down to her youngest brother (who started at 3), aged, grew, and matured mentally and physically, even as their mental and physical health was slowly ruined to the point that they all became suicidal. Imagine what this must have been like for the youngest!
The story of their escape from these hopeless conditions via a tunnel, and their return from the near-death status of the "disappeareds" is nothing short of miraculous. The escape of Papillon from Devil's Island pales by comparison. This book is totally absorbing and impossible to put down. You must read it.
It is a serious and important book, and there are too many good things to say about it in this short review. The writing is disciplined and controlled, in an angry but not vengeful voice.
To me the most profound theme is the evil inherent in the concentration of arbitary power in the hands of a despotic man who could commit such an atrocity. There is no legal or moral code left on Earth that visits punishment for the crimes of the father on the innocent wife, children, and friends as well, let alone punishment that is this terrible and extended.
Did I mention that the author had actually been the adopted daughter of the very same King Hassan II responsible for all of this?
All Moroccan's should be ashamed of their King Hassan II after this book. Let us hope it will help lead to a revolution in the governance of that beautiful country.
This is an incredible record of a woman and her mother and siblings' experience of deprivation, injustice, terror, and yet, victory in ways that would seem impossible. When betrayed by the doting ruler who had taken her from her family to be his daughter's playmate, Mlika is able to keep herself and her loved ones not only alive, but as sane as possible by dedicating herself to the tiny choices made, moment by moment. She chose to invest every ounce of strength and love that she had in their monumental daily challenge to live. This was not for months, or years, but two decades. I have read this book twice, and highly recommend it as a chronicle of extreme bravery and selflessness in circumstances that are beyond belief to most of us, at least here in the western world.
I saw an interview with Malika Oufkir on Oprah Winfrey's show and was so taken by her courage, her incredible spiritual strength and the unbelievable horror of her tale, that I felt I had to know more. I found this version to be an inspiring testimony to the human spirit but also an honest account of the terrible toll of this family's ordeal, leaving one brother "a permanent child" in Malika's own words, a brother who found adjusting to a normal, free life nearly impossible and who is still suffering the effects of his imprisonment.For their part, Oufkir and her sisters were left suspicious of men, emotionally scarred by what they survived...and yet they also managed to find the strength to serve as witnesses to their injustice and to find the courage to speak out. This is one of the most inspiring true-life accounts I've read in the last year and one I'd put on any "must read" list. If you dont know the details of Oufkir's story, here's a brief summary At the age of 5, Malika Oufkir, eldest daughter of General Oufkir, was adopted by King Muhammad V of Morocco, a man who wanted an available playmate for his young daughter. While in the palace, Oufkir led a life of a fairy princess, in total luxury --- until her father was found guilty of treason as part of a coup to overthrow the new regime (led by King Hassan II). Malika's father was executed and she, her mother and her brother and sisters were immediately imprisoned. From one day to the next, Oufkir went from luxury to a struggle for her very existence, living in conditions that you can't believe until you read about it. There were times when one or the other would try and commit suicide (her brother when he was only 7) or be forced to eat food drenched in rat urine. And yet they DID persevere and manage to escape to tell their tale. Please don't assume that the grim details in this book (and I won't pull any punches; there are parts of this book that are difficult to read0 take away from the inspiration to be found here. After finishing this book, I actually felt uplifted and was amazed that I did, buoyed by the fact that this family went through such horror and yet managed to find the courage to survive - and then to tell about it.