Yasmeena's Choice

A True Story of War, Rape, Courage and Survival

De: Jean Sasson

Narrado por: Parisa Johnston

This is the true story of Yasmeena, a bright and beautiful young Lebanese woman who was imprisoned in Kuwait during the first Gulf War. Yasmeena's shocking journey is a tale of the madness of war, of the sexual brutality unleashed by chaos, and of one woman’s courage to stand in danger’s way to aid her fellow sufferers. This is an explicit, graphic, and honest book. It is for mature audiences only.

Jean Sasson has spent her career sharing the personal stories of courageous Middle Eastern women. Princess: Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

was an international bestseller. It has become a classic, taught in colleges and high schools and devoured by anyone who aspires to understand the Middle East. Yasmeena was quite literally an innocent abroad. She was a college educated, English-speaking flight attendant graced with an unusual amount of confidence and sophistication. She was also a virgin and a conservative Muslim daughter and sister. When Yasmeena's flight out of Kuwait was delayed, it was because Saddam Hussein had just invaded Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers threw her into a woman's prison where the guards committed ghastly sexual attacks and tortured the women in excruciating ways.

After Yasmeena was brutalized by the captain of the prison, she thought she was the most unfortunate woman on earth. But that was before she befriended Lana, whose brutal rapist took glee in inflicting hurt. Yasmeena used her position as the captain's favorite to protect her friend, though she also was forced into a wrenching decision.

Yasmeena's Choice reads like a thriller. As the Americans and other allies march into Kuwait and the Iraqis flee, Yasmeena escapes. Eventually she finds a safe harbor where Sasson interviews her and records every horrific element of her experience. Sasson has wanted to write this story for many years. But she knew that the sexual explicitness and violence would make the tale difficult to publish. A year ago, Yasmeena's story and the choices she was forced to make invaded Sasson’s dreams. She realized that now was the right time to share the story. And so here it is, Sasson's testament to an articulate, angry, brave young woman who not only survived but who was eager to share her story with the world.

©2013 The Sasson Corporation (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Heart wrenching

This book evokes deep emotional suffering of the characters in this book. Knowing that Yasmeena survived made it have somewhat of a happy ending. Knowing that the things that happened to these women is true and could happen to any woman who was trapped in a war torn country is not only shocking but scary. I remember the invasion of Kuwait I was a girl probably 14 years old 15 years old at the time and I had a friend who her family was here on vacation from Kuwait so it kind of hit close to home because I know that that could’ve been her fate if her and her family hadn’t been on holiday in the United States. This was a part of the war that I never thought about until I read this book and it broke my heart to know that innocent women were brutalized and tortured.

May I never know if I am so Courageous

This story is intense & hides nothing. As a woman who lived in Q8 & fell in love with its people, I was happy to hear an author sing this countries well earned praises. The stories are brutally honest & therefore difficult to listen to. May the many victims of wars find peace in their hearts. Thank You, Yasmeena & Jean Samson for having the fortitude to share these stories with the world.

Kept me rivited

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes I would. It is an eyeopener to the difference in the lifestyle between the east and west in order that we could have open discussion about the story and what women from the east face.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main character of the story - she used her head to survive. It was interesting how the comparison was made between the two females in the story.

Which character – as performed by Parisa Johnston – was your favorite?

Yasmeena

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Even though Yaseema was given a lot of freedom, there were still cultural restrictions which would have made her an outcast should her family have known that she was a victim of rape. So sad.

Heartbreaking and excellently written

Jean Sasson writes in a way that makes you feel like you are right there. This book was difficult to get through, not because it wasn’t good. On the contrary, this book was incredible. It was difficult to finish because of how detailed Jean Sasson was about the atrocities endured by the women in that prison. Thank you for telling this story. Thank you for being in awareness to the horrendous treatment that those women survived.

On a side note: I was not very impressed by the narrator. She was extremely robotic, and at times very monotone. But, she was clear and the recording was free of glitches.

Not what I expected.

I would like to start out by saying I think what these innocent women were forced to endure is an abomination. My heart aches for them and their tribulations. I think it's equally abhorrent what their own families do to them as a result. I don't think it's prideful to be ashamed of your own daughter, sister, friend for being the victim of a horrendous, violent crime. I find it to be culturally and willfully ignorant and grotesque.
Having said all of that, I found it nearly impossible for me to be compassionate towards Jasmeena regarding anything other than her capture and rape. The ridicule that comes from her culture and family and HERSELF is no different from the arrogant way, I felt, that she treated people that aren't as thin, as pretty, as affluent as her or her family.
It was obvious to me that, by the way the author beat the dead horse again and again, that being rich, pretty and thin made her better than most in her own eyes. She simply saw this as fact. I get that she's small, but did we have to hear about it again and again and again? The materialistic nature of the descriptions of people and possessions made it difficult for me to be as sympathetic as I probably should be.
Although I'm incredibly empathetic and sickened by the kidnap, rape and torture these women had to endure, it was difficult for me to set aside Jasmeena's thoughtlessness and lack of humility towards anyone outside of her caste and feel as much compassion for her as I truly wanted to. As a whole, I feel a tremendous amount of compassion for these women, but so much so for the poor women that don't have all of the material things that the rich, privileged women like Jasmeena feel entitled to.
This is just my opinion and my "feelings" after reading this book. I'm enraged actually. I find what happened to these women and what continues to happen to them abhorrent.

Excellent!!!!

I’ve read many books written by Jean Sasson and I have never been disappointed. Yasmeena’s Choice is a book that very well explains the horrors that occurred during the Kuwait invasion by Iraq. It is very graphic and strong story to read. I loved the narrator, she takes into the story, you will want to read it in one seating but at the same time you don’t want it to end. I have been trying to get the audible for The Rape of Kuwait (a book that the author talks about in this book) with no success . I highly recommend this book.

Jean Sasson

I’ve read most of Ms. Sasson and just like the others, this book does not disappoint.

While gruesome in its details, it is most important that no qualms be had about such as story. It is not for the faint of heart.

What amazes me most is to read some of the reviews posted by my fellow readers who decry the story told as abhorrent and wonder how a society could shun raped women. How they agree forced by the government to give birth.

This is baffling to me as in the USA, in 2019 there are states passing laws that prohibit abortion regardless of how a pregnancy came to be. States like Alabama that passed a law outlawing all abortions regardless of rape, incest, fetal defects; a complete takeover of a woman’s body and choice.

And even as insane as that sound, the state wants to give parental rights to the rapist, so no only does the woman have to carry a baby that is a constant reminder of her rape, but also has to deal with her rapist sharing 50/50 parental rights with his or her victim.

Add to that the constant shaming and blaming of rape victims and add to that the numbers of “rape kits” that are lost, misplaced or hidden by the authorities; Depriving victims of the evidence needed.

There is not one religion nor society that can be singled out because the stories told in this book are part of humans’ darkest nature.

Tragic

while the story was tragic and painfully descriptive, it was still very eye opening and informative about the way women are treated in wartime in the middle east.