Rating: 
Summary: Impossible To Put Down? I DID !
Review: The author sounded like a sixteen year old endeavoring her very first teenage romance novel concerning two individuals of different religions ( an issue that has been dealt with in abundance). Norma Khouri does not have the distinctive voice it takes to relate a story, and her storytelling power was just not shattering enough to make an impact on us. I felt no pity nor sympathy for Dalia and her plight. Dalia herself sounds rather fictional. And her descriptions of the Jordanian food like mulukiyyeh ( a thick spinach stew with chicken pieces served over a bed of rice topped with lemon) sounded like she just read it off a menu in a restaurant in Jordan. Everyone in the book seemed imaginary. I have lingering doubts about its authenticity. The author's depiction of Islam was also poorly exaggerated. I suggest that the author should do more research before expressing her 'one sided' views. I don't see what Jean Sasson, author of Princess saw in the book to describe it as 'impossible to put down''. It's very possible to put it down and I did, with pure disgust at her lame interpretation of Islam and the seemingly fabricated story. Iam a Muslim living in Malaysia and although I admit that we have restrictions to conform to, we are also allowed to have opinions, expressions and professional careers. I, for one, am a lawyer with a loving husband who understands my needs and wants. I don't wear the veil and let my hair hang loose to blow in the wind but I am pious in the sense that I follow the five pillars of Islam - I pray five times a day, but at the same time I am allowed to go out for coffee or shopping with my girlfriends ( just as long as I don't forget my prayers). Equality of men and women has not worked out in any society, its just that we Muslim women are more protected and the responsibility lies in the men and how they want to shield us. Some may be strict with their ways, while others are more flexible. Although not highlighted, this situations does happen in many societies, even in America. It is similar to a strict father who forbade his daughter from going out with a boy on the wrong side of the tracks and when she disobeyed him, in a fit of rage he could beat her to death. Its undeniable that things like this happen. This honour killing is just one of many countless other acts supposedly justified by religious tradition but actually intended to maintain male dominion on women.
Rating: 
Summary: Facts or lies?
Review: Norma Khouri gives an account of a tragedy that she claims to have personally experienced in Jordan. Her prose style may be somewhat turgid, but her contribution is presented more as a journalistic account of honour killing in the Levant rather than as a work of great literature. I find most of the reviews more telling than Norma Khouri's book. Rather than addressing the evidence that she puts to the reader of a widely prevalent scourge in the region and discuss its veracity, these reviewers instead attack the author's sincerity and integrity. As someone who was brought up in the Middle East, I know that Norma provides a fair reflection of the darker side of traditional Arab society, albeit that she gives it heightened poignancy. The smokescreen that most of your reviewers put up to the issue of honour killing belies a very serious problem, which needs to be urgently addressed, all the more so considering the obstacles that are being raised by Khouri's detractors.
Rating: 
Summary: unfair and unbalanced
Review: I had hoped that a book about honor killing written by a Jordanian woman would have diverged some what from the "Not Without My Daughter" genre of tales from the Near East. Norma Khouri's book relies on appeals to base stereotypes of Islam and Arab society to sensationalize an already tragic and horrific story.
It is clear from Khouri's numerous and baseless assertions about Islamic law that she has put very little effort into researching what is actually said in the Qur'an or in the Hadith. She takes passages out of context and then "translates" these passages in a way that fits with her conception of Islam as a barbaric, misogyanistic system of belief.
Furthermore, I find it difficult to believe that the familial relationships described in this book are typical of most Arab families. I have lived in the Middle East and have never witnessed the kind of indifference and disregard for women that Khouri describes in Mahmood and his sons. The fact and frequency of honor killings is undeniable and the culture of impunity that surrounds these murders is clearly unacceptable. But to misrepresent the origins and motivators behind the practice does a disservice to the women who are killed and to those who are fighting to eradicate honor killing.
Perhaps I am expecting to much from the author but I feel that she owes it to herself, her friend and women around the world to treat an issue of such magnitude with responsibility and intellectual integrity.
Rating:
Summary: read this book
Review: I am currently doing a huge research project about honor killings/crimes of honor at my university. After doing this research and hearing Khouri's words repeated several times by scholars abroad, I can't help but believe that most of her points are true and need to be taken into serious consideration. Her writing may not be as eloquent and stunning as one may hope, but she gets her points across. I believe that anybody with common sense will keep what she has to say in context. It is not an attack against Islam; on the contrary, I think she makes the point VERY clear that this is not solely a religious issue, but a cultural struggle in the middle east. I think to discredit her experiences and writing is rather obtuse. It's very easy to deny what happens if you don't look around at other sources. But if you do, i think you'll find that women are in fact murdered for holding a man's hand in public if she's not married, or having a cup of coffee together. It may not happen in every family or every scenario, but it does happen. I'm not writing this purely from an academic perspective; my family is from the middle east, and after reporting their stories from the region, it's very easy to understand why and how honor crimes happen. So yes, read this book, bearing in mind that Khouri will appear one-sided in some respects, but that you'll learn a ton in the process.
Rating:
Summary: I wouldnt buy it!!
Review: I am a Jordanian female. I read the book abroad and thanked God it was banned in Jordan .Its really disappointing , it only reflects a strange hatred and lack of knowledge about Islam, I cant see the point of attacking Islam Prophet - Mohammed (PBUH)- and Islam as a religion when the writer said more than once that this doesnt have anything with religion. Secondly, muslims themselves spend years of study to be able to understand and interpret the Holy Quran and the Sunnah, I cant understand how she thinks that she can explain Islam based on her humble knowledge and experience (as she claimed). If she really thinks she can fool western readers, she cant do that to us!!!I've lived for 25 years in Jordan, I studied in the university and have been working for about 3 years now and - I dont belong to the Elite society she refered to - and I have never heard about such extreme stories -at least not because a couple held hands!! Its very obvious the the writer is seeking fortune and fame! If she really cared for her friend she would have known that such a shameful book would bring no good to anyone.
Our Jordan is better than that!
Rating:
Summary: Mistrusting her readers-Dalia and Michael are not real names
Review: Being myself a Lebanese woman who feels strongly about women's rights in our middle-eastern societies, I have read this book with so much anticipation. I feel let down by the author and as a fellow Christian I feel embarrassed by how she portrayed Islam. One could never guess that her 'sister' Dalia was supposedly a Muslim, a practicing Muslim too! I can hardly show this book to my Muslim friends despite their dedication to the eradication of honour killing that has nothing to do with Islam. Misquoting one's source of information is an act of intellectual dishonesty. The subsequent standing of this book is the commensurate penalty for such a deliberate twisting of basic facts about Jordan, Islam and the Arabs. Because of these kinds of prejudices and falsehoods fuelled by power-hungry politicians, Muslims and Christians fought a civil war in Lebanon which claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. It is sad to notice that Norma Khouri's attitude towards Islam is frozen in time-has she learned nothing from our Lebanese civil war? It is books like these that fuel and perpetuate negative preconceptions and prejudices which can lead to conflicts. This is no exaggeration when one recalls that nearly a war broke out between two Central American countries because one of them drew wrongly its national boundaries on newly issued postal stamps! Norma Khouri may not be a power-hungry politician but she is certainly after fame and money, by writing fiction that bears no resemblance to real life in Jordan or our region as a whole. Also, your readers ought to know that 'Dalia' and 'Michael' are aliases and not the real names of the woman and man supposedly involved in the 'love' story. So the question is why has Norma Khouri felt the need to fictionalise not only 'their' story but also their first names? Many reasons come to mind, especially: /1/ If one assumes that for example the real first names of Dalia and Michael were Fatima and John, then there are tens of thousands of people with such first names in Jordan. So to claim that 'Dalia' and 'Michael' were used to protect the identities of Fatima and John is nonsense. In fact, a first name like Fatima is more widespread than Dalia. /2/ The fact that she gave Fatima the pseudonym of Dalia is bizarre because by doing so she is not protecting Fatima (who sadly is dead) but rather her family who allegedly killed her. The author's use of 'Dalia' does not square with her claim about 'avenging' Fatima. The author must have had a very compelling reason not to expose Fatima's family, as suggested in section /4/. /3/ The fact that she gave John the pseudonym of Michael is bizarre too because by doing so she is telling us (between the lines) that John was not proud of and objected to seeing his name associated with Fatima who was supposed to be the 'love' of his life, according to this book. This fact does not fit at all with her description of him as a 'well-known Jordanian fighter' against honour killing. However, this fact fits neatly with the comments of many critical reviewers who noticed that Michael's true allegiance and love was to his family and not to any woman, unless his family approves of her. He consequently could not allow himself to love the Muslim Fatima because of the staunch Catholicism of his family. 4/ The most probable and compelling reason behind fictionalising the first names of Fatima and John is the author trying to stop any curious investigating journalist from going to Amman and digging out the real events and not just the first names but the full names of the people involved in this unproven honour killing case. By using aliases, Norma Khouri has made it impossible for anyone to check her story-isn't it a sign that she has something to conceal from her readers? Could it be, as some reviewers have suggested, that Michael/John does not exist and that honour killing never took place because Dalia/Fatima died a natural death? Or if Michael/John existed, could it be there was no more than a friendship between him and Dalia/Fatima? A friendship hyped up by the author into the 'undying love' that Jordan has never seen before, for the obvious reason of selling her book and settling in Australia? Again selling this simple friendship to the west, as the Jordanian version of Romeo and Juliet, is another example of intellectual impropriety. In this case fictionalising their first names makes sense. It provides the author with the best guarantee that the truth will NEVER EVER be found. Norma Khouri seems to be afraid of any independent investigation of her story. Would it show how fake is her story? It seems that Norma Khouri knows the answer to this question but it is an answer she is not willing to share with her readers. All in all, due to its lack of any evidence and its endless list of contradictions, this book does not appeal to one's objective intellect but only to one's subjective prejudices and preconceptions; which is deplorable because dealing with an issue like honour killing requires objective and verifiable data that no one can doubt. Any doubt is music to our enemies' ears; those who are happy with the social status quo which provides a lifeline to the honour killing mentality. Norma Khouri has played into their hands. For this reason, this book has done more harm than good by not sticking to the truth whatever it was. Telling us just the real first names behind 'Dalia' and 'Michael' would have been a good start: it would have meant that Norma Khouri trusts her readers and their maturity to distinguish between fiction and reality. Sadly, she seems to think very little of our intelligence in exchange for parting with our money to buy this questionable book which deserves no star.
Rating:
Summary: An age-old money-spinning scheme.
Review: As an Italian woman whose life has been spent between east, where I was born and where my husband has served in the UN forces in Lebanon, and west I have found this book just unbelievable and full of self-contradictions most of them already documented in your one-star reviews. I have many Jordanian friends, men and women - Christian and Muslim, but none of them can recognise the Jordan of Norma Khouri as theirs. I myself do not, hence this review and my disappointment in this yarn. Norma Khouri has exploited the fact that she was born and bred in Jordan to grant herself a free licence to create her own version of Jordan that is a hell-hole for women in the knowledge that no western reader can challenge her claims. It becomes just a question of how prejudiced (or not) is the reader to believe (or not) her fictional saga, with no proof. A foreign writer would not know how to twist the facts and lie about Jordan without being caught red-handed. But a Jordanian writer like Norma Khouri, who speaks perfect Arabic and perfect American English, knows just how to get away with it as she has an insider knowledge. The reason behind her inability to answer all those reviews debunking her claims stems from the fact she can fool her western readers but she cannot fool her own people, the Jordanians who know Jordan as well as she does if not better. For example she does not know the countries surrounding Jordan: Lebanon is not a neighbour. So how 'Jordanian' is she to pretend to talk on behalf of the Jordanian women? Based on her choice of Australia, her desire to distance herself from Jordan is obvious. So why keep the pretence of caring about Jordanian women, if not for financial and Australian residency reasons? Her Jordanian 'feminist' credentials are as real as the 'medical' credentials of an average TV viewer whose medical experience is based on watching medical series and programs, like E.R. or 'Doctor Quincy'! To be whom we claim to be, we have to practice what we preach first. In the case of Norma Khouri, it means fighting honour killing in Jordan and not from her new home in Australia. She may be a heroine for some naïve western readers but in Jordan, which is the real arena to fight honour killing, she is a figure of ridicule because they know what she has done is simply what millions of third world people dream of doing: start a new life in the west, by lying if necessary to pass the immigration authorities. This book is her key to the west, no more no less. The rest is just a smoke screen. As a western woman, I care too much about any injustice done to women to see it being exploited in such a blatant way by someone so eager to be the darling of the west. This book shows how writing about human tragedies and injustices (without even witnessing anyone of them) can become money-spinning schemes, given a willing audience and readership. Sadly millions of us in the west have been forced-fed with a heavy dose of anti-islamism. So any book disparaging Islam is guaranteed a financial success in the west. Norma Khouri was astute enough to realise this unfortunate fact of western life and act upon it. Middle eastern people are known for their entrepreneurial skills. Norma Khouri is such a successful example with the pen her tool, Jordanian Muslims her victims and the anti-arab west her market for her new product; this fictional book.
Rating:
Summary: clash of modern and traditional
Review: I had visited Jordan several times and had no clue of the issues brought forward in this book. Very interesting clash of modern and traditional value systems.
Rating:
Summary: This book can be judged by its cover.
Review: I have worked and lived in the Middle East, including Jordan. Norma Khouri's style may be engaging but her message is definitely not. Quite frankly, it is off putting and dangerous by perpetuating myths. Her hatred of anything Arab and Islamic is so transparent and palpable throughout her book. It is quite clear to me that she is using her pen to launch a vitriolic attack on Jordan and the Jordanians, especially the overwhelming Muslim majority. To claim that she wants to contribute to the fight against honour killing in Jordan is laughable. If that were the case, she would not have chosen the cover of her book which shows a veiled paid actress to portray a 'persecuted Jordanian' woman. That picture is so alien to the way Jordanian women dress. A quick look at Queen Noor's book cover provides a good example. The veiled actress picture was chosen by Norma Khouri for one purpose only: To awake our anti-islamic prejudices about Muslim women, to sell her book in the West of course. By doing so, she has shot herself in the foot: She managed to alien every well-meaning Arab and Muslim reader. The numerous negative reviews are a reflection of that. There is a French proverb that says 'You cannot catch flies with vinegar'. Indeed, Norma Khouri can hardly expect any Arab/Muslim reader to applaud her book when she calls Islam a dictatorship for example. On many occasions, she mocks Islam and the Arabs to such an extent that it verges on racism. The fact that she is herself an Arab (albeit a Christian) seems to have escaped her critical judgement. The crudeness of her book is matched only by her lack of evidence that she befriended a victim of honour killing. This ought to make any impartial reader to doubt her story until she provides the unmistakable proof to support her claims. The antagonism of this book makes its author's claim of fighting honour killing in Jordan so hollow. This book was conceived and written for two reasons only: getting into Australia and selling a fictional story to unsuspecting Western readers. Of course, as a fellow reader said, we must educate the masses. However, this task requires objectivity, intellectual honesty and putting forward the facts for everyone to check. Queen Noor has done so in her book but Norma Khouri has not. The cover pages of both books mirror the message given by each one of them. One is factual whereas the other is prejudiced. It is said that one cannot judge a book by its cover. However, in the case of this book, one most certainly can.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking!
Review: Once you get past the poorly edited prologue chances are that you will be glued to the book until the last page (especially if you are female). Kudos to Norma Khouri for having the courage to speak her mind and stick to her values as well as being loyal to her friend despite horrendous pressure not to. It is abominable that crimes against women are commited in our day and age. Can you imagine your father and/or brothers raising a hand against you because you went out for dinner with a member of the opposite sex who was of a different religious belief? This account unfortunately paints Islam in a highly negative light. It is sad to see how the disempowered (i.e. women in this book) have to resort to deceipt in order to keep up some modicum of sanity. The book portrays Jordan as a country that consists of more than a handful of uneducated, bestial men. If the book had been written by a foreigner it would have been easier to dismiss; however the book was written by a Jordanian born and bred in Jordan. It makes me think twice about spending tourist dollars in a country in which women's lives are destroyed at whim.
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