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

A renowned French journalist for Le Monde uncovers another level of monstrousness in the recently overthrown dictatorship of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Cojean’s riveting two-part story opens with the blunt firsthand account of the kidnap and rape of a young girl. In 2004, just after turning 15, Soraya was thrilled to present a bouquet of flowers to Gaddafi when he visited her school. The next day, three women from his Committee of the Revolution took her to visit his nearby encampment. She wasn’t allowed to leave. Soraya was bathed, made-up, and delivered to Gaddafi’s bedroom. Over the next five years, Gaddafi repeatedly raped and abused Soraya, forcing her to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and watch pornography. In the second half of the book, Cojean investigates Soraya’s story. Navigating traditional Libyan cultural silences on rape, Cojean locates anonymous sources who corroborate chilling descriptions of Gaddafi’s use of rape as a political weapon, and the resultant pall of disgrace cast on the victims and their families. Even after Gaddafi’s death and the collapse of his regime, it is the Libyan women who continue to suffer—reviled by their families, ignored by their government and the international community, living in silent shame. A moving and disturbing wake-up call to the personal costs of totalitarianism. Agent: Heidi Warneke, Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle. (Sept.)