Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club)

I saw an interview with Malika Oufkir on Oprah Winfrey's show and was so taken by her courage, her incredible spiritual strength and the unbelievable horror of her tale, that I felt I had to read this book. I found it to be an inspiring testimony to the human spirit but also an honest account of the terrible toll of this family's ordeal, leaving one brother "a permanent child" in Malika's own words, a brother who found adjusting to a normal, free life nearly impossible and who is still suffering the effects of his imprisonment.For their part, Oufkir and her sisters were left suspicious of men, emotionally scarred by what they survived...and yet they also managed to find the strength to serve as witnesses to their injustice and to find the courage to speak out. This is one of the most inspiring true-life accounts I've read in the last year and one I'd put on any "must read" list. If you dont know the details of Oufkir's story, here's a brief summary: At the age of 5, Malika Oufkir, eldest daughter of General Oufkir, was adopted by King Muhammad V of Morocco, a man who wanted an available playmate for his young daughter. While in the palace, Oufkir led a life of a fairy princess, in total luxury --- until her father was found guilty of treason as part of a coup to overthrow the new regime (led by King Hassan II). Malika's father was executed and she, her mother and her brother and sisters were immediately imprisoned. From one day to the next, Oufkir went from luxury to a struggle for her very existence, living in conditions that you can't believe until you read about it. There were times when one or the other would try and commit suicide (her brother when he was only 7) or be forced to eat food drenched in rat urine. And yet they DID persevere and manage to escape to tell their tale. Please don't assume that the grim details in this book (and I won't pull any punches; there are parts of this book that are difficult to read0 take away from the inspiration to be found here. After finishing this book, I actually felt uplifted and was amazed that I did, buoyed by the fact that this family went through such horror and yet managed to find the courage to survive - and then to tell about it.

During 1974 and 1975, I worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in assignments in the Middle East and Africa. While in Casablanca, I dined frequently at a restaurant owned by a lady. I asked a waitress if the lady had a husband. She told me that the husband had been killed at a palace in 1971 when officers and cadets attempted a coup. General Mohamed Oufkir, the author’s father, had been involved in stopping the coup. Ten officers (friends of General Oufkir) were executed. On August 16, 1972, General Oufkir led a coup and was executed. His relatives (3 women and 6 children) were imprisoned for approximately 20 years in desert jails with asps, scorpions, spiders, pythons, rats, and bats. At age 5, Malika was sent to live in a palace. She knew the king and royal family better than most people. You will learn the truth about fake Muslim monarchies. Morocco had a period of slave ownership. Members of the royal family, General Oufkir, and Malika Oufkir drank alcoholic beverages. In 1965, General Oufkir had worked with Israel’s Mossad to kidnap and to kill in France an opposition leader, Ben Barka. This book is a detailed account of corruption in a Muslim country with a monarchy.

Whether it is Robert Caro or not this biography tells its story with enough political context to be of use to anyone researching a wide range of political, ethnic, desert and psychological topics: noisy chewing p.19, 73-75; sandalwood smudge p. 39; sweats 117; Jews 74, 78, 111, 168, 262, 267; jinns 45; virginity 72, 77; Berbers; nudity 50; beatings 52-53; weight 53, 147; infidelity 79; 1971 coup 80-81; dislike of luxury 85; Gaddafi 86; slaves 40,52-53; servants 89; women blamed 97; assassination attempts 88; guards 125-126. There is another detailed description of slave roles in palace life I am not finding now. Excellent writing is always a nice plus but trust and willingness to work together are more valuable in the telling of this story than excellent writing would have been. Plenty of relevant topics are touched upon, and it is readable. It is obnoxious to protest that the subject of the biography was a spoiled brat when she constantly points that out herself. There is an inconsistency as follows: After many years of starvation diet her sister, not the anorexic one, has a weight problem. How? It isn't starvation bloat, that problem surfaces during the escape.

I enjoyed reading "Stolen Lives." I can't imagine losing 20 years of life stuck in one prison situation after another and under such harsh conditions. It is hard to visualize man's inhumanity to man. I was somewhat disappointed in the first part of the book. The story seemed to jump from one childhood event to another and back and forth in time periods. After this part the book moves along in a chronological order and has a great deal of detail and emotion. I think the book does a good job portraying the culture of Morocco during that time period as it pertains to the monarchy and social/political standings.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's thrilling, sad, actually very sad, unfair but teaches us about how not to give up even though the circunstances are terrible. Malika was the daughter of the Prime Minister of Marroco and then the King who was a good friend of her father adopted her to be with the King's daughter Lalla Mina. So when Malika was 18 she went back home with her family and two years after her father was accused of trying to kill the King, so Malika's father was executed and she and her family were sended some time after to a prision and and then to another and they had to suffer lots of things like hunger, humiliation and a kind of life that wasn't human. I strongly recommed this book I've only described a short part of it but i'm sure you'll love it. And once you start reading it you won't stop until you finish it, actually I read it in 2 days because it was so good.

I warmly recommend this book, a true and beautiful story. Easy reading for a beginner in English. Enjoy the reading!

I was looking for this book for a long long time finally I found it on Amazon

Unglaublich, was dieser Frau und ihrer Familie vom marokkanischen Herrscher angetan wurde. Ein ganz toll geschriebenes Buch, sehr berührend, aber leider auch sehr wahr. Eine Heldin und eine ganz tolle Frau ist Malika Oufkir. Ich wünsche ihr nur das Beste.

I loved this book and couldn’t put it down, amazed at the courage of this family under such dire circumstances.

you can't complain about your life after reading this book!