- Bin Ladin, Carmen. The Veiled Kingdom. London:
Virago Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84408-102-8.
- Carmen Bin Ladin, a Swiss national with a Swiss father
and Iranian mother, married Yeslam Bin Ladin in 1974 and lived in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1976 to 1985. Yeslam Bin Ladin is one of
the 54 sons and daughters sired by that randy old goat Sheikh Mohamed
Bin Laden on his twenty-two wives including, of course, murderous
nutball Osama. (There is no unique transliteration of Arabic into
English. Yeslam spells his name “Bin Ladin”, while other members
of the clan use “Bin Laden”, the most common spelling in the media.
This book uses “Bin Ladin” when referring to Yeslam, Carmen, and
their children, and “Bin Laden” when referring to the clan or other
members of it.) This autobiography provides a peek, through the
eyes of a totally Westernised woman, into the bizarre medieval life
of Saudi women and the arcane customs of that regrettable kingdom.
The author separated from her husband in 1988 and presently lives in
Geneva. The link above is to a U.K. paperback edition. I believe
the same book is available in the U.S. under the title Inside the Kingdom : My Life in
Saudi Arabia, but at the present time only in
hardcover.
September 2004 