Norma Khouri is back!!
She was rewarded for lying and forgery by having a film made about her.
Guess what?
She conned the film makers too. They deserve it. But let's begin at the beginning.
Norma Khouri wrote a book called Honor Lost or Forbidden Love based on her life in Jordan. In it she tells the story of her friend Dalia, a Muslim Jordanian woman who fell in love with a Christian Jordanian man. As a result, her family murdered her and were threatening the life of Norma, who then fled Jordan to Greece then to the USA.
Khouri landed a top New York literary agent and got a lucrative contract. Her book was published in many languages and won an award in Australia. She got a huge advance to write a second book.
Some Jordanian women activists against honor killing in their country read the book and were troubled by it. They noticed that it contained many factual errors. Examples: the Jordan river flows in the middle of Amman, Kuwait borders Jordan, and certain buildings she mentions in the book are not where she says they are. In other words, the writer didn't seem to have been in Jordan. They alerted the publisher, but they were ignored.
Until an Australian journalist got suspicious. He spent 18 months investigating and come up with evidence to prove that the book is fiction, that Khouri is an Arab American who's been living in Chicago since she was 3, that the FBI was after her because she specialized in defrauding the elderly. She was married with kids. While living in Australia she pretended publicly that she had nothing to do with them to maintain her lie that she's an escapee Arab woman struggling alone.
After her exposure, Khouri disappeared from the news. Till yesterday. Now some idiots made a film about her--she managed to con them by promising that she will come up with evidence to support her Dalia story. She led and they followed on a wild goose chase in Jordan. The movie maker is still defending her by saying how smart she is (could it be you are idiots?), that she's a compulsive liar, and that Dalia is probably a composite story of two women that Khouri then pasted together. Khouri continues to maintain that Dalia exists. (To get a taste of her lying, read this Interview with her. I find it hilarious).
It is fascinating that even after she was exposed as a fraud, some people were still willing to be deceived by her. How do we explain this?
Could it be that the Norma Khouri story actually exposes lots of people as frauds? The New York elite publishing establishment, the top notch literary agent, the editors who think they already know all they need to know about oppressed Arab women so they don't bother read the crap that is handed to them, publishing houses all over the world who picked up the book, newspapers and reviewers ...
Those people are frauds because, like Khouri, they don't give a damn about ending "honor killing" or about Arab women. All they care about is making a buck and feeling morally superiour while they are at it. As the Jordanian activists said, Khouri and her publishers have set up the cause of eliminating honor killing years back, which is the sad part of this story.
To all those who were deceived by Khouri again, I dedicate the song below: "pretty liar"
15 comments:
Give her Hell Amal...
I'm glad you dont just blame this psycho hack but take to task "New York elite publishing establishment, the top notch literary agent, the editors" for spreading this anti arab and muslim propoganda.
I'm doing my best, Qwiader..
hi lena,
Yes, she is not the problem, just a con artist. The real problem is those who allow such frauds to proper and who hinder the hard work of women fighting honor killing in their countries. Believe me if there is no Norma Khouri out there, they'll invent one and call her Nonie Darwish, or Hirsi Ali, or Wafa Sultan.
Nice job, Amal. I saw your post on Palestine Blogs. You can read about another Arab-bashing fraud at http://tinyurl.com/26nrug or http://zionistsout.blogspot.com/2006/12/report-on-brigitte-gabriel-talk.html
Hi Peacemonger,
Thanks for the links. I've heard about Bridgitte Gabriel. You see, they need a collection, a variety: so they got the gay woman, the Syrian "secular," the Palestinian daughter of a martyr, the feminist. They all say the same thing. I'm convinced it's all scripted for them.
Hey, I recently added a news widget from www.widgetmate.com to my blog. It shows the latest news, and just took a copy and paste to implement. Might interest you too.
i am so surprised with what norma khouri did no one would do such a thing and betray their country for money ,i would'nt for my life!
jordan is a beautiful country,the government cares about the people more than anything else she hates jordan it's her loss not ours
amal a
you are right when you say that Norma Khouri isn't the real problem, that the real problems are those who hinder the work of women fighting so-called honor killings. these latter types really will invent a norma where none exists. they have already done it with the women you listed and others.
but what i find even more tragic is that often the women hindering this work are the very women in the best positions to further it--women with time and money to spare who could be working on the problem themselves but would rather gossip about and undermine others and women who have made such careers out of this tragedy that they have lost sight of the entire point. some of these women benefit from the status quo. they get to travel to places they'd otherwise never get to see to attend fancy conferences and to speak about these crimes, people photograph and interview them, they get awards, they get accolades, they are professional beneficiaries from this sad state of affairs. but many of the women who have the time for all that do not sincerely invest themselves in seeking penalties for these murderers or raising funds for women's shelters or planning educational and awareness programs and the like. until that begins to happen, i cannot take them seriously in their self proclaimed roles as activists. for if they really cared about these victims, instead of figuring out how they can dance in the limelight, they would be figuring out how they can protect these women from the risks and the fate poor du'a faced.
sometimes women are their own worst enemies. it's not just the men who behave badly.
The film has come out now and Anna Broinowski is anything but a fool. It's called Forbidden Lie$ (which gives away her ideas on this woman) and it isn't about Jordanian honour killings - it's about how a con artist works. The best bit was that the film maker managed to copy some of Norma Khouri's own private footage shot between her and her 'bodyguard', who appears to be not just a bodyguard. This footage shows Khouri bragging to camera about how she's stringing this woman along. Who was stringing who along though :) Brilliant film - you must see it.
As you can see, it's not exactly flattering to Khouri, showing exactly how she conned so many people.
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/2007/film?film_id=8432
Anonymous,
Thanks for the info. It's definitely something I want to see.
Wow! The idea that she's exposing frauds as well as being one is a really interesting angle. Truthfully, there's more than enough blame to go around.
whether nourma khouri's story was a fictional or not, you have to admit that these stories did and will still happen in the most arabian countries.
why should give her a damn?
make the energy useful to eliminate dishonor crimes, liar like nourma will be finished.
There are some many cases about it. A writer that hasn't been there and they are lying about the story. It is pity that she has to do something like that
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