Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan

Rating:
Summary: Selling fiction as non-fiction does not help the author.
Review: What happened to Dalia is a human tragedy that should not have happened at all. It was most certainly avoidable if, for a start, Michael took his relationship with Dalia far more seriously than just acting like a simple flirt in search for good time.

Moreover, the author, in her desire to make out of Michael's flirt a 'love story' at any price, by playing the matchmaker, seemed to have paid little attention as to how this situation will be viewed by Dalia's family. Such an oversight resulted in the deadly result that we know!

The inevitability of Dalia's death is not reflected in the events as related in the book. However, I can understand why the author claims otherwise to hype up the sale of her book, before a sympathetic western audience, and to shift the blame away from her and Michael, by condemning Dalia's father, Jordan and Islam too.

I believe the author and Michael should accept their responsibilities in this tragedy which took 14 months in the making and in which both were main actors. Being Jordanian, they didn't need a crystal ball to foresee the eventual tragic outcome.

We all aim to expand our personal freedoms but we should not ignore the limits that our societies impose on us, especially when it is a matter of life and death as it was in Dalia's case.

Also, no matter how tempting it was for the author, disassociating honor killing from the way women are treated throughout the world has been a terrible mistake that most probably will earn the author disillusionment and anger from many readers who either experienced or witnessed male violence.

Having read this book, I feel confused as to its nature: It seems to be a heavily fictionalised event marketed as a non-fictional account for the attention of unsuspecting western readers who know nothing or very little about Jordan. Such a marketing ploy pays little dividend to the author, in the long-term, and shows how short-term were her aims when writing this book.

As to the much publicized love story between Dalia and Michael, I was inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt even with no hard evidence being provided to back up her claims.

However, Queen Noor's book 'Leap of Faith' made me change my mind. Queen Noor embraced Islam, not out necessity but out of love for her late husband King Hussein, to make his role easier for him, as a Head of State, since Jordan is 96% Muslim.

Conversely, Michael refused to follow Queen Noor's example of converting to Islam, with regard to Dalia, when he knew that it was the ONLY way for him to be with her and to protect her from honor killing: Michael simply DIDN'T love Dalia. It is very hard to believe that she could have had any real feelings for him, in return. Quite the contrary.

Somehow, Michael's allegiance to his family overrode any other consideration, including Dalia's own welfare.

In fact, the author's efforts to shield Michael from any criticisms seem to reveal and confirm one the major weaknesses of this book and its inability to withstand external and independent scrutiny.

As a reader, I believe that this book is destined to end up in the same category as Barbara Cartland's novels - the fiction category!

For your readers' benefit, I feel duty-bound to conclude that -first- reading this book has been a waste of my money and time and -second- reading Queen Noor's book has been a pleasurable surprise and lesson in the history of the Middle East that I recommend to anyone. So much so that I read it twice!

Rating:
Summary: The facts behind that death threat and those five years.
Review: This book seems to me conceived with moving to the west in mind; based on the apparent belief that western people are ready to believe anything said or written about the Middle-East. Otherwise, it is hard to understand why it was written with no regard for accuracy, objectivity or logic. The author has, most certainly, shown no intention in this book to initiate a dialogue with her fellow Jordanians. About its style, one cannot enjoy its ups and downs if one doubts the cohesiveness of the story. Unfortunately, it was my case!

In this review, I'll concentrate on the author's following claim, related to the period after Dalia's death, that amazingly enough has escaped all your reviewers' attention so far. The claim is that her immediate family threatened her with death for 'shaming' them before Dalia's family, prompting her to wait for five years to get a visa to 'escape' from Jordan. This claim will be challenged using this book itself.

If I may, I'd like first to remind your readers what the author wrote, when Dalia died: Michael had already arranged travel papers not just for him and Dalia but for the author as well and they were to be ready 'within few months'. Therefore, just few months after Dalia's untimely death, those travel documents had arrived and were ready for use by Michael and the author if they wanted to leave Jordan. So, why didn't they use those visas to escape to the west? Indeed, why did the author claim to be living under a death threat originating from her family and yet chose to stay at home for another five years, despite having her visa available within months after Dalia's death? There is only one logical explanation: Her family never issued a death threat against her, in the first place!

Actually, based on how she describes her father and family in her book, they must have felt sorry for her for losing Dalia, in such a horrible way. In an interview to an Australian Sunday newspaper last January, the author said 'if she returns home, she will be probably shunned or killed by her loved ones'. Claiming to be killed is expected of her (It is by doing so that she settled in Australia) but the surprise is she admits that after all she could be just shunned by her family; which actually fits her family's social standing because, as a reviewer pointed out already, her family is known to belong to the Establishment within which 'honour killings' are frowned upon. Somehow, the author failed to mention this fact in her book, presumably to make the 'death threat' from her family against her seem believable.

The post-Dalia course of events suggests thus that she let the validity of that first exit visa lapse and chose to stay for another five years at home as no death threat was actually issued against her.

Also the idea that it takes five years to obtain a visa to leave Jordan is ridiculous: It took just about a year for Michael to get those first three visas, according to the author herself. In this book, the reader is left wanting more as to why five whole years were supposedly needed, this time, to get such a visa, instead of one year or so.

However the way that five-year period in Amman after Dalia's death is described in the book, highlights once more the tendency that the author possesses in contradicting herself from one chapter to the other.

For example, she writes early on of being afraid of seeing Michael in public, before Dalia's death. However, later on, once Dalia is dead, she writes that she and Michael kept meeting in public places unafraid of being seen together for five whole years! How can the author reconcile these two contradictory statements within the same book? It also contradicts her earlier claim that her only reason to meet Michael was as Dalia's matchmaker. Does the author expect her readers to square the circle, on her behalf, to make a sense of these obvious contradictions?

The five-year long association between the author and Michael, after the death of the unfortunate Dalia, has not thus been fully explained in this book. In fact this whole five-year period has been written in such a cavalier way, with no regard for the readers' common sense, that it is one of the lowest points of this book.

Therefore, the events as chronicled in this book suggest that there was no death threat hanging, like a sword of Damocles, above the author's head for five years and most certainly she left home for Australia on her own volition, with a date of her own choosing: Year 2000. As pointed out, she could have left in 1995, if she wanted to, with her first visa.

Putting aside my professional interest in this book (I am an English literature teacher), as a Jordanian woman and a fellow Christian, I feel let down by the author for trivialising an issue like honour killing by denigrating her country and making up a 'love story' out of a simple flirt that went horribly wrong. With her eyes set on Australia, the author piled up so many layers of misinformation that her book has become worthless to us Jordanian women and men who are fighting the honour killing mentality and, yes, winning!

To those interested in serious studies about how a society like Jordan thinks and behaves, I recommend, with your permission, the series of books -written by a former Catholic nun Karen Armstrong- which are available in Amazon. Kind Regards.

Rating:
Summary: This book is an indictment of the author and Michael too!
Review: The point that I would like to review is the issue of Dalia and Michael being in 'love'. Style-wise, I felt unusually like a fly on a wall but, once doubts crept into my mind, I must admit it became a chore to finish this book.

I disagree with the author: this book reads Dalia and Michael were not in love when she died. In fact, Michael emerges from this book as a weak person unable to challenge his family who wanted him to marry a fellow Catholic. Yet, he (as a man in a man's world) wanted Dalia (as a woman) to sacrifice everything for him so that he wouldn't have to upset his parents! And the author claims that Michael was passionately in love with Dalia - It makes a mockery of reality! Ultimately, fate intervened when Dalia lost her life after 14 months of Michael's dithering.

As described in this book, Michael was so careful not to upset his family that he used to bring his own sister with him, as a witness, every time he met Dalia and the author, to show his family that he will not 'betray' them by eloping with Dalia. If Michael was trully in love with Dalia, to spend precious little time alone with her, the last people he would have brought along with him would have been member(s) of his own family, on every occasion.

I too had to choose between my Christian family and my love for my husband. I chose my husband (I am a Canadian married to a Jordanian). The fact that Michael did the opposite by choosing his family over Dalia shows he did not love her, regardless of the author's claims to the contrary. He fancied her for her beauty-yes! He flirted with her-yes! But did he love her? Most certainly not!

Of course, since the author describes Dalia as an intelligent woman, Dalia must have known that Michael was just seeking 'good time' and that he was definitely no 'Mr. Commitment'. Indeed, any person (woman or man) in a potential relationship seeks one sine-qua-non condition to be satisfied: the partner's total commitment to the relationship to make it work; otherwise there is no fertile ground for love to be born let alone blossom. Yet, from this book, it appears that Michael showed total commitment not to Dalia but to his family, instead. This is why, bearing in mind how the author has described Dalia, she could not have loved him either, out of self-respect at the very least!

How the author -throughout this whole book- can be so forgiving to Michael's dithering and weaknesses is beyond comprehension, even if the reader takes into account that they both share the same faith. This is why, once this book is read with critical eyes, it comes out as an indictment of not just Dalia's father but of Michael and the author too.

If you want to read a true love story and, on the top of that as a bonus, educate yourself about Jordan, you are better off reading Queen Noor's 'Leap of Faith'! It is a true delight!

Rating:
Summary: The author trades women¿s plights for the West.
Review: I have bought this book, in memory of my best friend who died of 'domestic violence' at the hand of her husband who refused to divorce her.

Since the author claims her best friend Dalia also died of unwarranted violence, I thought that buying her book would be an act of solidarity with her, a tribute to Dalia and my friend and an act of therapy for myself. How mistaken I was!

About its style, it reminded me of the Arabian tales of Sherazade, with their Middle-Eastern flavours, that I used to read during my childhood.

I have divided my review into two main parts. The first one concerns the content of the book and its meaning. The second part relates to the believability of the 'love story'.

Starting the first part, I am sad to say I regret buying this book as I feel I have fallen for this book's marketing hype.

By reading it, I was expecting the author to write on behalf of my fallen friend and all women victim of men's violence, using Dalia's plight as a rallying cry and platform. It isn't the case at all!

The author seems to have dismissed out of hand all violence against women worldwide except for what happens in Jordan under the name of 'Honour Killing'.

In the UK, about one hundred women suffer the fate of Dalia and my friend every year. Yet, as far as this author is concerned, the murder of these innocent women is of no consequence because -since they happen in a Western country- they cannot be labelled as 'Honour Killing'.

In the author's eyes, as reflected in her book, only 'Honour Killing' seems to count. Yet, to me and I imagine to all your readers, murder is murder, regardless of where it takes place and how we label it!

Whether it is called 'Honour Killing' in Jordan/Middle-East or 'Domestic Violence' in the West, ought not to matter. However, it seems to matter, so far as the author and her book are concerned.

In other words, in this book, the author appears to be playing with semantics: somehow the death of an innocent woman in the West seems irrelevant because she was not killed in Jordan/Middle-East!

It is this observation that made me realise that this book is not about Dalia's memory (let alone my friend's); nor is it a campaign work against senseless murder of women wherever they may be.

This book appears to be a commercial creation written by the author to justify her move to Australia, by victimising solely Jordan out of all this world's nations.

Indeed, to make a success of her book in the West, the author seems to have taken the decision to avoid speaking out against violence on Western women. Otherwise, her Western readers would have been reluctant to buy a book highlighting some of the social ills of their own societies, rather than another 'foreign' nation's.

The author appears to have successfully exploited the 'holier than thou' attitude of the West towards the third-world countries, by concentrating only on Jordan, for the benefit of and to the relief of her Western readership.

The second part of my review is about the 'love story' between Michael and Dalia. I cannot see how it could have happened for two reasons.

Firstly, there is a fact about Dalia that is easily forgotten in the secular West: She was a practicing Muslim. The obvious symbol of her devotion is her wearing the Muslim scarf (Hijab). I have Muslim friends who wear it: Their allegiance (just like Dalia's) is first and foremost to Allah. Therefore, Dalia wouldn't and couldn't be tempted by a Catholic man called Michael, unless he was willing to join her in her Islamic faith.

The author conceiving this 'love story' is no different from the author writing a book about a 'love story' between the Pope and a Muslim woman. Who would believe such a story? Yet, the author is expecting us to do just that, regarding Dalia and Michael!

Secondly, for all his Western education, Michael, as portrayed in this book, seemed to have behaved in a traditional manner towards Dalia: He was expecting her to 'slot' into his Catholic family, by denying her own Islamic identity, to please his family.

In other words, Dalia and Michael did not love each other to make the compromises that are necessary in any relationship across a divide (religious, in this case).

Dalia refused to do so, out of her strong religious beliefs whereas Michael couldn't bring himself to stand up to his parents over Dalia: they knew her (and the author) only as a friend of their son's and so she remained till she died.

This is why I cannot understand how the author can write this whole book about a 'love story' that never was!

On the other hand, it explains why the author has been silent -in her writing- over Michael supporting her book and its 'love story'. His lack of support is quite telling!

In conclusion, I feel rather angry and disappointed by the author's assertion that a crime against a woman is a crime only if it happens in Jordan/Middle-East. It is as if, to the author, the Western victims are mere statistics that fall outside the much more 'important' 'Honour Killing' field.

By buying this book, one aims to consider the author's voice and writing as one's own. Unfortunately, it has not been my case. I do not believe that the author is speaking on behalf of all female victims of violence, in her present book, unless they happen to be Jordanian.

Hence this review, with your kind permission, in the name of my fallen friend and all the women neglected by the author, in this book. Thank you!

With warm regards to you from Scotland.

Rating:
Summary: Consequences of Rampant Discrimination
Review: By now most people in the western world know about the so-called "Honor Killings" that are still condoned in the Arabic World. We are shocked, disgusted, and appalled.

Honor Lost is a memoir, a first person account of just one of those legalized murders in Jordan. Author Norma Khouri lived through the horror of seeing her best friend-a part of her heart, soul and life-cut down in her prime by her own family. That is an amazing story but there is another. Ms. Khouri escaped to the West to tell about it.

Jordan, a democratic country where such heinous crimes are not only disregarded but encouraged, is led by royalty that opposes these deeply-rooted customs but is powerless to make a difference. Efforts by the UN and humanitarian agencies have also been ineffective. This author hopes to achieve what they can't with the power of her pen.

She tells her story and that of her beloved friend clearly and dramatically. Although the prose is not faultless, the story is as riveting as a finely wrought novel, the language simple and honest. Khouri includes an afterword that explains the tribal beliefs and politics that foster this horrendous outcome of intolerance, along with short descriptions of similar documented cases from her country. She tells us that the practice is not declining but growing. Her book ends with a section titled "Farewell" that seethes with the melancholy experienced by those who have no home.

The book does not include a section offering steps that each of us might take to begin to mitigate these crimes against humanity. I know they exist. Perhaps this information will be addended in the next edition. Perhaps it could be placed on her publisher's Website along with the excerpt they provide. Concrete suggestions would be the brilliant cut diamonds in the crown of Ms. Khouri's cause.

(Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards.
Her newly released Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three.
Both are about loving a home one cannot easily live in.)

Rating:
Summary: Perpetuating myths in an outdated book!
Review: As an American woman married to a Jordanian Muslim, therefore aware of what Jordan really is, I have found this book demeaning and too predictable to be believed.

The style betrays the author's aims by dramatizing the negative and belittling the positive aspects of her society.

This book is demeaning to Jordanian women because it perpetuates the myth 'They don't have the opportunity to stand up and defend themselves' so they have to be 'saved' by us Western women.

Living in Amman and New York, I can see the positive and negative sides of both ways of life.

Yes, Jordanian women have not achieved yet equality with men but then who are the victims of 'wilding' in Central Park?

Perhaps the author would have been less sanguine, in her book, about her country if she bore in mind, when writing it, that -for example- every minute three women are attacked in the USA!!

It is clear, for marketing reasons, that the author has not mentioned some facts regarding REAL Jordan.

Indeed, the author did not mention in her book that the legal loophole that allowed Dalia's father to go unpunished EXISTS NO MORE.

So, in the light of recent legal development, THIS BOOK IS ALREADY OUTDATED.

This new act of parliament came into being thanks to the efforts of the Jordanian men and women who campaigned against honor killing for decades. The Jordanian women are not as 'powerless' as the author claims in this book.

The author, instead of joining the fight for women's rights at home, decided to leave her country to seek a new life for herself in the West, thereby forfeiting her right to intervene in Jordanian affairs.

STILL, in this book and as seen in her review of Queen Noor's book here in Amazon, the author seeks to portray herself as the champion of Jordanian women.

Contrary to the author's claims in her book, there are Jordanian feminists who are working -FROM WITHIN THEIR SOCIETY- to fight for women's rights, NOT by vilifying their society from abroad (as the author has done with her writing) BUT by using Islam itself as their weapon in their dialogue with traditional men who are weary of 'Western' influences (They are even more so now, thanks to this book).

Rather unfairly, the author not only didn't mention to her Western readers the existence of such Jordanian feminists but, worse, tried -in this book- to portray ALL Jordanian women as slaves to men, in need of a rescue that the author can provide ONLY from Australia, as if ALL Australian women are free from violence and exploitation. I am sure Australian writers would disagree with her on this point.

Also, the author claims, WITH NO PROOF PROVIDED, that there is a law dictating how Jordanian women should dress. IT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. Such a dress code enshrined by law does NOT exist. When in Jordan, I wear my WESTERN dresses and so do my husband's sisters!!

The author seems to have adopted a simple strategy to write this book: IF UNHELPFUL, CONCEAL EXISTING FACTS; IF NECESSARY, BEND THE EXISTING FACTS AND IF NOT ENOUGH, CREATE NEW FACTS.

It is also part of the global campaign to market the book in the West: THE MORE NEEDY JORDANIAN WOMEN APPEAR TO BE; THE MORE BELIEVABLE THE BOOK READS AND THEREFORE THE MORE IT SELLS!

This book is too predictable to be believed because the author has successfully exploited the classical need for a 'heroine' challenging TO DEATH her traditional society in pursuit of 'free love'. The author has just used a well-known commercial formula for FICTIONAL love stories:

IT IS ONE OF THE WINNING FORMULAE OF ANY MILLS&BOON LOVE STORIES.

The author's heroine is of course Dalia who is described in this book as a 'martyr of love' because she 'dared to dream about love and follow it through knowing it would cost her life'!

This marketing hype is so far removed from the content of this book ITSELF, when read CRITICALLY.

In fact, the author wrote that Dalia was killed -WITHOUT WARNING- by her father. He did NOT give her the choice between losing her life or her 'love' (Michael).

If such a choice was given, is the author claiming that Dalia would have chosen losing her life over losing Michael?

IN THIS CASE, THE AUTHOR HAS CLEARLY FAILED TO TELL HER READERSHIP THE BENEFIT TO DALIA -AS A 'MARTYR OF LOVE'- OF DYING AND LEAVING MICHAEL BEHIND!

Having read the book, through Western and Jordanian eyes, I can see how Western readers fall for such a 'forbidden love' saga. However, as an 'honorary' Jordanian, I can also see that this 'love story' has nothing concrete to stand upon: MICHAEL AND DALIA WERE NOT IN LOVE.

If they were in love, they would NOT have dithered for FOURTEEN MONTHS till she died over marriage, in their precarious situation which I have experienced myself.

The fact coming out of this book suggests that Dalia knew that Michael was merely flirting and would NEVER go against the wishes of his family: He can have Dalia as a friend BUT they wanted him to marry a fellow Catholic.

Finally, if I may, as an alternative to this book, for the benefit of your readers who are interested in knowing more about the REAL Jordan, I would recommend 'Leap of Faith' by Queen Noor. It is a 10-star book and is on sale here in Amazon.

To Dalia, may you rest in peace!

To Amazon, thank you for this space!

Rating:
Summary: An Awakening
Review: The small description in the New York Times Review regarding Honor Lost was intriguing enough. However, upon finishing the read, I felt angry and thankful all at the same time. First, angry at the senseless idea of honor killing so tragically depicted by the author, and yet thankful that I, as a woman, have the freedom to do things that the women like those in the book can only dream.

This book certainly was an eye-opener into the life for some Jordanian women. But, to make it a more personal story, the author concentrates on the dreams and hopes of these women through Dalia and how she is able to carry on.

Of course, one should read this book with a cautious eye as it does touch upon religion. Specifcally, the differences between Islam and Christianity, and the author's biases is apparent in some instances. However, looking beyond this, the reader is able to grasp on to the urgency of Dalia's hopes and dreams, and the author does a wonderful job of not only writing a piece in honor of her best friend, but creating awareness that a brutal act such as honor killing still exists, and should be stopped.

Rating:
Summary: Honor Lost
Review: I think this book really explains how women in "modern" day Jordan are being treated. The book reads like a novel, and for a minute, you almost forgot that this REALLY happened and continues to happen every single day.
I had heard of Honor Killings before but never really understood them. The fact that the US supports Jordan at all is horrible. We have taken a stand against human right problems in China, and other countries but not against so-called Honor Killings in the Middle East. How any father/brother can treat their family in this way is insane and very scary! I do not believe that anyone has the right to kill in the name of "God"! And to think, that we even consider Jordan "modern" - after reading this book I think women all over the world need to take a stand against this type of treatment. I know I will.

Rating:
Summary: As a Jordanian, this book is a pure fiction and politics
Review: A response on the book , "Honor Lost: Love and Death in modern-day Jordan" by Norma Khouri.

As a Jordanian and as a Muslim, I tell you that this book is a pure fiction and not facts and is also a ploy to make money and is part of a political agenda. It is a fact that even in USA, a country that is a much advanced society in term of women right and economy a third world country like Jordan, there are 1000s of women who get killed each year by spouses or boyfriends, yet these crimes are not labeled as honor crimes, and yet the media does not associate them with religion nor with culture when in fact all of these are in common with "honor crimes" that is based on rage and jealousy. In Jordan, unlike the USA, these deaths are very few compared to the death and suffering of millions of women in refugee camps and in desert towns largely due to government corruption and lack of equal opportunity for women, which deserves more attention and publicity. In Jordan, we know that the author was a part of a Jordanian elite Christian minorities that was very close to the royal family. This group of people have widely exaggerated this "honor crimes" as away for them to help the regime cover-up its wide violations of human rights that include torture of women, men and students.

This book is another money ploy. The author who is also a personal friend of Queen Noor, where it is no coincident that both of their books came at the same time and share similarities in style.

Rating:
Summary: The unisex salon belongs to the world of fiction.
Review: I am a Jordanian Christian who lives in Jabal Hussein, a suburb of Amman, where the story of this book is set.

About the style, often, the author comes out like a 'drama queen'; which is rather off-putting!

There was no unisex salon run by two Christian and Muslim women, in our neighbourhood.

Such a salon, running for FIVE YEARS (before Dalia's death, according to the author) would MOST CERTAINLY have attracted the attention of EVERYONE in Jabal Hussein.

One CANNOT miss such a unisex salon, in one's OWN neighbourhood, over a period of FIVE YEARS. IMPOSSIBLE!!

So, to her credit, the author has undeniably a fertile imagination!

Also, the author's statement women were charged more than men is illogical. Why would women accept such a difference in pricing? It simply doesn't make economical sense.

There was no unisex salon run by the author and Dalia because female privacy is (over)valued by men and society at large in our culture.

Even in the west, SINGLE-SEX swimming pools, gyms and salons, for women only, do exist.

So it is ridiculous to believe, FROM THIS BOOK ACCOUNT, a Jordanian woman having her hair done in front of a group of prying male customers UNKNOWN to her (AND ON THE TOP OF THAT paying more than men for it).

Also, as hairdressers, the author and Dalia were the best confidents of their clients. So how can the author expect her readers now to believe that a woman (Jordanian or otherwise) would talk about her personal feminine problems in front of strange men in a unisex salon?

It seems the author, in her desire to make this story stick -AT ANY COST- has dispensed with common sense and reality.

So much so that she even states inviting male customers for a chat and a cup of coffee, whilst having a peep through a hole made in the wall to see if Dalia's brother was approaching the salon! Such a behaviour is SO UNTYPICAL in our society. Anyone acquainted with our culture would attest to that!

SO, I AM AFRAID, THE UNISEX SALON BELONGS TO THE WORLD OF FICTION CREATED BY THE AUTHOR FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER WESTERN READERS.

Moreover, the way this book describes the first meeting between Dalia and Michael is unbelievable too.

He was supposed to have come to the salon 3 times in 2 weeks, for a haircut, in front of ALL the male and female clientele, coming in and out, and -lo and behold- love sprang between him and Dalia!

This author's account thinks little of our intelligence AND knowledge of Jordanian society that is hers too.

BUT THEN SHE WROTE THIS BOOK SPECIFICALLY FOR A READERSHIP THAT IS UNAWARE OF THE JORDANIAN WAY OF LIFE.

Even, PHYSIOLOGICALLY speaking, the human hair CANNOT grow fast enough to be cut 3 times in just 2 weeks.

The fact is the author and Dalia ran a salon for women only. We, men, have our own barbershops.

This suggests the author and Dalia met Michael for the first time OUTSIDE the salon in circumstances the author is reluctant to describe them to us, by omitting them from this book.

Would it make the 'forbidden love' story untenable and unbelievable, if we knew them?

Indeed, it seems the author moved that first meeting with Michael from outside the salon to inside it (by claiming it was a unisex, open to men) to avoid being asked embarrassing details and questions about that first outside meeting.

THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ARISING FROM READING THIS BOOK AND COMPARING ITS CONTENT TO REAL JORDANIAN LIFE.

What makes these questions pertinent is the author has NOT mentioned AT ALL that Michael supports this book and its content; which is rather revealing about the 'reality' of the supposed 'love story' between him and Dalia.

IN THIS BOOK, THE LACK OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF ANY FORTHCOMING SUPPORT FROM MICHAEL, WHO WAS DESCRIBED AS THE 'OTHER HALF' OF THIS 'LOVE' STORY, CONSTITUTES AN IMPLICIT ADMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR OF AN UNAVOIDABLE FACT: MICHAEL DEFINITELY DID NOT LOVE DALIA.

The author wants us to believe Michael and Dalia were the Jordanian 'Romeo & Juliet'. Yet, Michael's silence -emanating from within the pages of this book ITSELF- suggests otherwise.

The facts are simple: Michael was merely flirting with Dalia who -judging from this book- was an intelligent woman. So, she was smart enough to understand Michael's behaviour but she took it in her stride because SHE WAS NOT GOING OUT ALONE WITH HIM.

Actually, the author REPEATEDLY states that FOUR of them were going out TOGETHER: Michael, his sister, the author and Dalia. So claiming that Dalia was 'seeing' Michael (once a month at that!) is 'over-stretching' the meaning of words.

IN THIS CASE, SEEING MICHAEL, AS A PART OF A GROUP OF FOUR, COULD HARDLY BE CONSTRUED AS AN EMOTIONAL EVENT FOR DALIA: DALIA DID NOT LOVE MICHAEL EITHER!

Sadly, her suspicious and paranoid father didn't see it that way with the terrible and heart-breaking consequences that we all know.

Once Dalia dead, the author struggled to keep the salon going till she had enough: '....I couldn't go to the salon any longer' is the way she explained it, in this book.

So she decided to leave Jordan for Greece then Australia to begin a new life, by transforming, as her means, Michael's flirt into this 'forbidden love' story with Dalia. God bless her dear soul.

Finally, the veracity of this story is so important, to anyone concerned, that it would be welcome if it was revisited thoroughly, here in Amman, by an independent researcher from outside Jordan, for objectivity's sake. The published result would be rather surprising.

IN CONCLUSION, READING THIS BOOK IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!