Final Memoir Post

Overall this book was very detailed and excellent in showing how life really is in Saudi Arabia, but also how the women are treated. I give her credit on writing a book about the tough restrictions of being a Saudi women, and even sharing her opposition about it was really brave. Most women there live there lives in fear and Carmen Bin Ladin went outside the norm, to really share her personal accounts of such a suffocated life.

They way she writes bring out lots of imagery, at least in my mind it did. You can really picture the clothes they wore, and the very polite and boring tea parties the women would have. Her emotions were so deep and captivating, that when you read it, it made it seem like you were in her shoes. She has a lot of passion in her goals for her daughters too and that showed throughout her writing. I think she did what was best for herself and daughters, by moving out of Saudi Arabia, and divorcing her husband. This shows strength in her actions, and should give hope to many women who believe they can't leave their homes because of restrictions or because their husbands are controlling. Unfortunately though, it's not important for women to be educated in Saudi Arabia, so they may never get to read such an excellent memoir as this. Anyone who is feeling alone and helpless in the world should read it though. Carmen Bin Ladin was in the worst rut of her life, yet she managed to get out of it. Her life isn't perfect she explains, but she is trying to make the best of it, especially after the 9/11 attack, when people thought she was involved because she was related to the Bin Ladins. She desperately wanted people to know that just because she was a Bin Ladin, didn't mean she thought like any of them or were anything close to Osama Bin Ladin. She's a good person, and it really shows through the choices she made, in the experiences she had, in Saudi Arabia.

One main point in the memoir was to show how women should be treated with equal rights, because they have just as much potential as men do. She feels it's unnecessary to keep women locked up in a house all day, wearing long scarves, when they could be educating themselves. They should be allowed to have male friends she explains, with out them having to look away, because it's considered "cheating" if you look at a man that is not your husband. She is basically an advocate for women's rights, which i really liked. In general, this is also a great book just to know about other cultures and how they can be different then America's. Her memoir made me really grateful that I had all my basic rights, and didn't have to live in such a confined place. I'm lucky to live in a country, where for the most part, women's intelligence is accepted and praised. Any book that really makes me think about my life, culture, justice, etc, is a good book in my opinion!