Rebel

March 28, 2022
Mohammed, who garnered international headlines as a teenager in 2019 when she fled Saudi Arabia and was detained by authorities in Thailand, recounts her daring path to liberation in this potent debut. The daughter of a politically powerful Sunni family, she explains that she knew from the time she was young that Saudi women were to be little more than “bodies shrouded in black bags.” In harrowing depictions, Mohammed details how, as she grew, so too did the prohibitions and violent punishments; one particularly disturbing passage recounts her being repeatedly punched by her mother after being outed by a classmate for having relationships with girls. Despite this, Mohammed sought subversion, first through a “secret world” of parties where older men—including members of the religious police—plied minors with drugs, and, later, in the online underground network of Saudi women runaways who eventually helped her plan her escape to Canada through a labyrinth of “secret codes.” While her death-defying act will leave readers breathless, it’s Mohammed’s bold unmasking of the “contradictions” of her homeland—where “tolerance and moderation” is preached, yet “anyone who doesn’t agree with the government” is “behead and tortur”—that leaves an indelible mark. Her scorching indictment serves as a beacon for women worldwide yearning for freedom.

March 11, 2022

Mohammed gained international fame when she escaped Saudi Arabia in 2019. In her new memoir, Mohammed describes her life in Saudi Arabia as the daughter of a prominent government official, subject to strict laws that restricted women's freedoms and opportunities. She was upset by the double standards that allowed men to do activities outside the home and control their own lives, but then oppressed and limited women. Mohammed reflects on her family dynamics and the abuse she suffered when she voiced different opinions and attempted to live her life authentically. Additionally, she interrogates Saudi laws and customs that played key roles in her treatment. After connecting with a group online, Mohammed escaped during a family vacation to Kuwait, but was detained while on a layover in Bangkok. As she resisted attempts to remove her, she mounted a social media campaign for asylum that attracted international media attention. With the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she was granted refugee status in Canada. She describes her life in Canada and closes with a letter to Saudi women who are contemplating escape. VERDICT A heartbreaking and tense narrative of discovery and escape.--Rebekah Kati

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2022
A harrowing account of a Saudi woman's triumph over oppression. In a stark memoir related in shocking detail to Canadian journalist and human rights activist Armstrong, Mohammed recounts growing up under Saudi Arabia's repressive male guardianship system in which "legally, a woman is a nullity." Raised in an elite Sunni family, she was taught the severely puritanical Wahhabi version of Islam, "a strict, harsh, unforgiving and repressive doctrine driven by coercion and fear." When she was 7, her mother warned her she must always be quiet, submissive, and pious; from the age of 9, she had to wear an abaya, a loose, shapeless, black garment that covered her whole body; and at 12, she had to add a niqab, a mask that exposes only the eyes. "Going outside without my niqab covering my face was an offence that called for severe punishment," she writes, "and that's what they delivered to me with fists and kicks and slaps." She could do nothing, and go nowhere, without her father's or brothers' permission. Even at a medical appointment, "when the doctor would ask me questions about why I was there or what was wrong, my father or my brother would answer and explain to him what I was feeling." A rebellious young woman, Mohammed boldly questioned her teachers, enjoined her younger brother to accompany her to the homes of more liberal relatives, and stealthily managed to circumvent some restrictions: She first had sex with a girl when she was 12; and later with a boy whom she smuggled into her huge, multiroom house. She watched films and read forbidden books on her phone. Longing for freedom, she found an online network of Saudi women runaways who helped her plan an escape. Mohammed creates a tense narrative of her desperate flight, the efforts of her powerful father to stop her, and the determined journalist who came to her aid. An absorbing chronicle of courage.

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