Customer Reviews

Sold: One Woman's True Account of Modern Slavery

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. The book that I read was just republished in the UK this year (2006), however I do not believe it included any new information. I read it in about 3 sittings which usually doesn't happen because I am way too busy, but this book was very enthralling.

The author describes how her father sold both her and her sister into Yemeni slavery. Ms. Muhsen describes how difficult her life was while she was a slave in Yemen. It was a miracle that she was able to get out. But she was forced to leave behind her son and sister.

It is very disappointing that this tragic story is not uncommon. The only thing that is uncommon about her story was that Ms. Muhsen and her sister are both British citizens, and the author thankfully was able to get out.

My only brief complaints are that the book was very crudely written. The author took very little care to ensure a level of continuity, and there were also several grammatical errors.

I look forward to reading the author's follow-up book!

[...]

Two British teenage girls born to Yemeni parents, who don't speak Arabic, are tricked by their sleazebag father and spineless mother into taking a "vacation" to Yemen to meet their extended family and get in touch with their heritage. The father sells his unsuspecting daughters as brides to a couple of jerks they've never met. They are forced to live in an isolated mountain village and suffer daily abuse.

I was frustrated by how little blame was assigned to the mother who was basically a passive participant. The mother had a total of seven children and the father had pulled the exact same kidnapping vacation subterfuge stunt years earlier with the older children.

Eventually, international efforts are mounted to rescue the two sisters who by now are mothers. The Yemeni government finally allows them to leave, but not with their children! They are also forced to undergo a waiting period and pregnancy tests to make sure they are not absconding with any Yemenite embryos. I bought this book in the airport in Kuala Lumpur and oddly it said on the cover, "not for sale in America."

I first encountered this book when a friend told me how great it was, and that both she and her sister had read it in only two days. I was intrigued, and borrowed it from my library - and I was enthralled. Not only is this a story wonderfully written, with a great flow that never lets you get bored, it is a TRUE story, one we should all be aware of. Living in Israel, a place so close to where this has taken place, I was especially touched by this book.
Zana and Nadia, two British sisters born to a Yemini father, are the third and fourth children in their family to be sold at a young age by their father to a distant, unknown village in Yemen for a certain sum of money. They are tricked, thinking they are leaving for a six-week vacation, where actually they are trapped, married at ages 15 and 16 to two Yemini boys. They are forced to work in awful conditions, have children from men they hate, take care of everyone around them, and be beaten nearly on a daily basis by their 'owners'. Zana is a fighter, however, and she does everything she can to escape from this hell and go back to England.
Things like this, the awful mistreatment, slavery (not just sex-slavery) and awful living conditons, DO in fact happen in countries like Yemen, Jordan and others. This is a great way of telling a true story, and still keeping the reader glued to his seat with his eyes bulging out at the book, amazed by what he is reading.
Zana Muhsen is a woman we should all admire - she was forced to change her life style and entire perception of life almost instantly. She is what kept her sister alive, the inspiration that we should all look up to for never giving up. No one should shy away from this book - it is a must.

This book is one of my favourite books that I have read, it is such an amazing book I would recommend this book to everyone and trust me you wont be disappointed, I read this book in 2 days and was sad because it was finished so i quickly went and bought the second part of this book which was Promise to Nadia which was great aswell. I am impatiently waiting for the next book by the same author. after you have read this you will think how lucky you are compared to other woman in this world!!! The author was great aswell as zana who this book is about, Buy it asap!!!

Two sisters, living a normal life in England, are told by their Yemeni father that they are going on a 'holiday' to Yemen, only to find too late that they have been deceived and sold into a marriage at the age of 16 and 15 and a life of poverty and slavery. This is 'true' islam as it is practised in muslim countries, and not the propaganda that we are fed by them. Zana counted a great cost to win her freedom and tell her story, and it needs to be told and heard today like never before. A riveting, heartbreaking account of a family destroyed by modern islam.

i really enjoyed this book and would recomend it and anyone i couldn't put it down! zana and nadia's story is very powerful and will have you behind the two sisters every step of the way a must read!

This book is very interesting and unbelievable that things like this can happen in a muslim country. How can religious men pass these two young girls as being wifes to those Yemen men without them saying 'they do' three times and how such comunities allow people to get away with this.
This book is gripping and encourages the reader to read on and on until the there is a happy ending. There is still no happy ending until Nadia is freed from the Yemen with her children.

i am so disgusted by wat i read, these poor girls victomized by these low-life inhumane cowardly peadophiles. i would so love to be in power, i would make those hypocrits suffer long tortureous deaths

It is a tragedy that women have no rights and are treated as animals in Yemen, and other Saudi countries.
Much help is need for them.

It took a long time for me to recieve this book after I ordered it from Amazon.
I started to read this book and couldnt put it down.
Zana Muhsen is awesome and fierce. She neve once backed down. She's a fighter.
I read online that Nadia and her kids are back in the UK (as of 2004). She is (of course)accommipenied by her abusive husband. Hopefully things work out for the entire family.

I read a promise to Nadia shortly after finshing SOLD. Its so sad to see how many people took advantage of
Zana and her mother. Con-men saw how much money Zana had made with the publication of SOLD, leaching onto
these fragile women till they sucked the blood out of both Zana and Miriam.

I am now reading Without Mercy by Zana's mother Miriam......