Mayada came from a very distinguished Iraqi family. Unfortunately for her, because of her familial ties and likely also because she was a female, she was thrown into prison when Saddam Hussein came to power. A lot of the people he had thrown in prisons were on the other end of the political spectrum, or those he felt would fight against his dictatorship. She was incarcerated with several other women from various walks of life, incarcerated for various reasons. Most of their stories that were mentioned in the book were the same. They were held at the Baladiyat Prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Inside this prison, unspeakable horrors and tortures took place. Prisoners (both men and women as it would later come out) were subjected to rape and sexual assault with various objects, beaten, suffocated, electrocuted, and many other things. This book doesn't go into as much detail as some of the news articles that I read when I googled this prison to see what it looked like, but whatever you can imagine, it probably happened.

I was on a Jean Sasson kick, and found all of her books at my bookstore. I didn't really read what this particular book was about, but I liked her other works, so I figured I may as well read this one too. I will say that while it does talk about torture and experiences in the prison, it was not the most explicit book I had read in that respect. I cannot imagine being imprisoned in my own country, certainly not a foreign one, and absolutely not in one under a dictator as ruthless as Saddam was. This was a very moving story, and really gave me a better perspective on what women in the Middle East endure/endured and what life was like living under Saddam