Gaddafi's Harem

Cojean, Annick

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

Soraya was just fifteen, a schoolgirl in the coastal town of Sirte, when she was given the honor of presenting a bouquet of flowers to Colonel Gaddafi, the Guide,” on a visit he was making to her school the following week. This one meetinga presentation of flowers, a pat on the head from Gaddafichanged Soraya’s life forever. Soon afterwards, she was summoned to Bab al-Azizia, Gaddafi’s palatial compound near Tripoli, where she joined a number of young women who were violently abused, raped and degraded by Gaddafi. Heartwrenchingly tragic but ultimately redemptive, Soraya’s story is the first one of many that are just now beginning to be heard. But sex and rape remain the highest taboo in Libya, and women like Soraya (whose identity is protected by a pseudonym here) risk being disowned or even killed by their dishonored family members. In Gaddafi’s Harem, an instant bestseller on publication in France, where it has already sold more than 100,000 copies in hardcover, Le Monde special correspondent Annick Cojean gives a voice to Soraya’s story, and supplements her investigation into Gaddafi’s abuses of power through interviews with people who knew Soraya, as well as with other women who were abused by Gaddafi.

Gaddafi's Harem: The Story of a Young Woman and the Abuses of Power in Libya

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

GROVE PRESS

Soraya was just fifteen, a schoolgirl in the coastal town of Sirte, when she was given the honor of presenting a bouquet of flowers to Colonel Gaddafi, “the Guide,” on a visit he was making to her school the following week. This one meeting—a presentation of flowers, a pat on the head from Gaddafi—changed Soraya’s life forever. Soon afterwards, she was summoned to Bab al-Azizia, Gaddafi’s palatial compound near Tripoli, where she joined a number of young women who were violently abused, raped and degraded by Gaddafi. Heartwrenchingly tragic but ultimately redemptive, Soraya’s story is the first one of many that are just now beginning to be heard. But sex and rape remain the highest taboo in Libya, and women like Soraya (whose identity is protected by a pseudonym here) risk being disowned or even killed by their dishonored family members. In Gaddafi’s Harem, an instant bestseller on publication in France, where it has already sold more than 100,000 copies in hardcover, Le Monde special correspondent Annick Cojean gives a voice to Soraya’s story, and supplements her investigation into Gaddafi’s abuses of power through interviews with people who knew Soraya, as well as with other women who were abused by Gaddafi, and those who were involved with his regime, including a driver who ferried women to the compound, and Gaddafi’s former Chief of Security. Gaddafi’s Harem is an astonishing portrait of the essence of dictatorship: how power gone unchecked can wreak havoc on the most intensely personal level, as well as a document of great significance to the new Libya.

Surprises of every kind lie in wait for the photographer - they open the eyes and quicken the heartbeat of those with a passion for looking. Published to coincide with a major retrospective of Marc Riboud's work, this is the first work in English devoted to the entire career of this outstanding twentieth-century photojournalist. Riboud has created some of the iconic images of our time: workmen balanced like dancers on the powerful metal girders of the Eiffel Tower; a young Vietnam war protester facing down a rank of riflemen with a flower in her hand. Riboud took his first photographs at the age of 14 with his father's Vest Pocket Kodak. Eager to investigate the complexities of contemporary reality, Riboud worked for the legendary Magnum agency, alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Chim (David Seymour). Starting in 1955, he traveled all over the world, from Nepal to Alaska, Mexico to Algeria, his camera always at the ready. While many of his shots reveal the anguish of war, others capture the fleeting delights of a swim in a sun-dappled river or children learning to whistle in a Shanghai street. Here are Riboud's best images, presented by those who know him.Surprises of every kind lie in wait for the photographer - they open the eyes and quicken the heartbeat of those with a passion for looking. Published to coincide with a major retrospective of Marc Riboud's work, this is the first work in English devoted to the entire career of this outstanding twentieth-century photojournalist. Riboud has created some of the iconic images of our time: workmen balanced like dancers on the powerful metal girders of the Eiffel Tower; a young Vietnam war protester facing down a rank of riflemen with a flower in her hand. Riboud took his first photographs at the age of 14 with his father's Vest Pocket Kodak. Eager to investigate the complexities of contemporary reality, Riboud worked for the legendary Magnum agency, alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Chim (David Seymour). Starting in 1955, he traveled all over the world, from Nepal to Alaska, Mexico to Algeria, his camera always at the ready. While many of his shots reveal the anguish of war, others capture the fleeting delights of a swim in a sun-dappled river or children learning to whistle in a Shanghai street. Here are Riboud's best images, presented by those who know him.

Marc Riboud: 50 Years of Photography

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Flammarion

Marc Riboud

Les proies: Dans le Harem de Khadafi

Literature & Fiction

Literary

GRASSET

Simone Veil et les siens: Album- préface d'Annick Cojean

About the Author\nGrand reporter au Monde, lauréate du Prix Albert Londres, Annick Cojean est l’auteure des Proies (Grasset, 2012), de Je ne serais pas arrivée là si (Grasset, 2018) et, avec Gisèle Halimi de Une farouche liberté (Grasset, 2020). Tous ces ouvrages sont disponibles au Livre de poche.\nAvocate, militante, femme politique, Gisèle Halimi a accompagné tous les grands combats de la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle. Elle est l’auteur de grands livres autobiographiques parmi lesquels Le lait de l’oranger (1988), Avocate irrespectueuse (2002), Ne vous résignez jamais (2009), tous disponibles en poche.\nGisèle Halimi : Soixante-dix ans de combats, d’engagement au service de la justice et de la cause des femmes. Et la volonté, aujourd’hui, de transmettre ce qui a construit cet activisme indéfectible, afin de dire aux nouvelles générations que l’injustice demeure, qu’elle est plus que jamais intolérable. Gisèle Halimi revient avec son amie, Annick Cojean, qui partage ses convictions féministes, sur certains épisodes marquants de son parcours rebelle pour retracer ce qui a fait un destin. Sans se poser en modèle, l’avocate qui a toujours défendu son autonomie, enjoint aux femmes de ne pas baisser la garde, de rester solidaires et vigilantes, et les invite à prendre le relai dans le combat essentiel pour l’égalité à l’heure où, malgré les mouvements de fond qui bouleversent la société, la cause des femmes reste infiniment fragile. 
Depuis l’enfance, la vie de Gisèle Halimi est une fascinante illustration de sa révolte de « fille ». Farouchement déterminée à exister en tant que femme dans l’Afrique du Nord des années 30, elle vit son métier comme un sacerdoce et prend tous les risques pour défendre les militants des indépendances tunisienne et algérienne et dénoncer la torture. Avocate plaidant envers et contre tout pour soutenir les femmes les plus vulnérables ou blessées, elle s’engage en faveur de l’avortement et de la répression du viol, dans son métier aussi bien que dans son association « Choisir la cause des femmes ». Femme politique insubordonnée mais aussi fille, mère, grand-mère, amoureuse… Gisèle Halimi vibre d’une énergie passionnée, d’une volonté d’exercer pleinement la liberté qui résonne à chaque étape de son existence. 
« Impose ta chance, serre ton bonheur et va vers ton risque » : ces mots de René Char, son poète préféré, pourraient définir Gisèle Halimi, cette « avocate irrespectueuse », et sa vie de combats acharnés pour la justice et l’égalité.

Une farouche liberté

Halimi, Gisèle

Nous y étions: 18 vétérans racontent heure par heure le D-Day

"Je ne serais pas arrivée là si...": 30 femmes racontent (French Edition)

Professionals & Academics

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