'We were shocked by the selfishness and the tactlessness of those who wrote to us. As Oufkir writes, 'It was fatal to have anything to do with the Oufkirs.' The few letters that were allowed through did more harm than good. Outside their prison, they had been expunged from Moroccan society.

They sang, danced and re-created the casino at Monte Carlo, using a dried chickpea as a roulette ball.

Oufkir gave lessons in English, Arabic and French to her younger siblings. We stored our provisions and trophies in another pokey little room: the place was riddled with horned asps and scorpions, and each time we caught one, we put it in a large bottle filled with alcohol.' Below, a cavern with a beaten-earth floor served as our kitchen. 'The nine of us were given two rooms to live in, on the first floor. 'We entered the fort through a huge blue door,' she writes. It exposes the brutality of Hassan's regime, and it gives us a way to measure the tensile strength of the human spirit.Īfter their father's death, Oufkir, her mother, and her five brothers and sisters were hustled by guards to a ruined desert palace in Tamattaght, Morocco. Elegantly narrated by Michèle Fitoussi, literary editor of French Elle, the book does double service. Stolen Lives - published as the best seller La Prisonnière in France - is Oufkir's story of exile and return. 'It took a long time for me to die as Malika, General Oufkir's eldest daughter, the child of a powerful figure, of a past. And they would dig their way to freedom with a spoon and a fierce determination to survive. They would languish there for most of two decades, 10 in solitary confinement. 23, 1972, Oufkir and her family were arrested and banished to a desert prison. His attack against the king's aircraft failed, and his 'suicide' was reported shortly afterward. In August 1972, Malika Oufkir's father launched a coup attempt against King Hassan II of Morocco. OL778952W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 90.38 Pages 324 Ppi 400 Related-external-id urn:isbn:1568951914 Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 16:53:44 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA102315 Boxid_2 CH103001 Camera Canon 5D City New York Edition 1st ed.

Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir