A review by arisbookcorner
Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam by Zainab Salbi, Laurie Becklund

4.0

IQ "Later, we began setting up a few programs to help them transition back into society, including support groups that would help replace the social networks they had lost and allow them to discuss larger issues like women's role in war, economy, politics and society. These 'invisible refugees,' as I came to call them, didn't fit the stereotype of refugees starving in tatters. Basic traits and hygiene habits don't change, even if lives do. I knew that from my own experience. I never changed the way I spoke or put on lipstick or carried myself when I lost almost everything I had. Why did so many people assume that all refugees look and act alike, as if their culture and upbringing had just been stolen from them along with their material possessions? Just because they wore clean dresses or spoke well didn't mean these women didn't need help. Sometimes putting on lipstick or a clean dress meant that a woman was resisting giving up that last hope that every shred of her old life was gone." 221

I didn't expect this book to make me as emotional as it did (while on a plane no less). I didn't know anything about Iraq pre U.S. invasion so my mind was blown on almost every page. Zainab's story is excruciating and deeply moving, her resilience awe inspiring.