Guernica Editions

Imagine that the charming, seemingly Westernized immigrant man that you fell in love with turns out to be self-centred, controlling, and cruelly manipulative-- but only when no one is around to witness this behaviour. To stop you from divorcing him, he kidnaps your infant children and leaves them in his primitive Middle Eastern village. You find that in Arab cultures children belong to the father's family, and women have few rights. Imagine actually going to live with his village clan, and later, at great risk, smuggling your children out of the country-- only to be convinced that the authorities can do nothing to prevent your husband from kidnapping them again. The author copes by dissociating herself from the ongoing emotional abuse. With perceptive and sympathetic eyes, Alexandra Karb recounts her twenty-year struggle to protect her children and survive in this nightmare. She takes us from Canada to Germany, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, while recording the peculiar, often disturbing, and always fascinating cultures she inhabits.

I was silent and gazed at the judge on his high bench, a dignified older gentleman with grey hair, wearing a long black robe. Does he have any idea what life is like in a Jordanian village? Has he seen how little girls are treated there? Does he care?