Gaddafi's Harem: The True Story of One of the Libyan Dictator's Young Prisoners

A shocking account of Muammar Gaddafi's reign of terror and a sensitive analysis of the fate of women victims of this system. Soraya was only fifteen years old when Muammar Gaddafi visited her school. As she handed him a bouquet of flowers, he placed his hand on her head and stroked her hair. It was the secret gesture that signaled to his bodyguards that he had chosen her. Soraya was kidnapped and saw her childhood come to an end. For seven years, she was raped, beaten, forced to consume alcohol and cocaine, and then integrated into Gaddafi's "Amazons" troops. In this book, renowned journalist Annick Cojean gives Soraya a voice, revealing a little-known aspect of Gaddafi's dictatorship. Annick risked her life to go to Tripoli to investigate this story. There, she found a hypocritical and decadent society, torn apart by prostitution, corruption, terror, rape, and murder. In Gaddafi's Harem, Annick Cojean allows the Libyan dictator's victims to tell their story to the world, restoring a measure of dignity to women whose lives were destroyed by a monster.