Do They Hear You When You Cry

Rating:
Summary: Told by a natural storyteller
Review: Fauziya Kassindja grew up in an idyllic environment in Togo but her world was turned upside down when her father passed away. Her father had denied tradition by refusing to allow his daughters to be circumcised and he believed in providing his daughters (especially Kassidja) with an education. After his death, Kassidja's aunt and uncle took charge and decided to have Kassidja marry a successful older man (who already had 3 wives) and to have her undergo female circumcision in order to please her husband. With the help of her family, she escapes to Germany and decides to start a new life as an asylum seeker in the United States. However, when she stepped off the plane and onto American soil, the true horror began.

"Do They Hear You When You Cry" is a very personal account of Kassindja's ordeals and her ultimate triumph. It is as though Kassindja is in the room with you, telling you her story. While this may not make the writing style especially sensational, it makes it come to life for the readers. I couldn't put the book down! Kassindja, coming from a culture where privacy and modesty are valued, goes out of her way to share what she has gone through in order to educate (about female circumsion and about our immigration policies) and to drive people to action. While her story can break your heart, it can also give you an immense hope in the will and kindness of people, and shows how people can prevail.

I believe that everyone has a right to tell their own story, and Kassindja's story is one that should definitely not be missed!

Rating:
Summary: I can't even imagine
Review: I'm appalled by the readers of this woman's story who have the nerve to "rate" another persons horrifying ordeal with one, two and three stars. It's not a fiction, it's someone's life, no matter how it is written. You might not like the way it's written, but that's not the point in this book.

I find it horrifying what still goes on and is allowed to go on in this world in the name of religion, God, and love.

This book had my crying, it took me a year to finish because of it.

Her story is a heartbreaker to say the least. I can't even imagine trying to live through what she escaped, and what she went through to escape it.

Read the book. Please. And pray for those who didn't escape it, those who lived through it, and those yet to live it.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: The beautiful yet shocking true story of a young woman who ran from her home in Togo to escape genital mutilation. She came to the United States hoping to gain asylum but because she did not have the proper papers and because at the time FGM was not grounds for political asylum she spent over a year locked up with other people trying to enter the country without legal reason. This book will make you angry at the injustices people face in the United States when trying to escape persecution in their own countries, but will help restore your faith in humanity when you read about all the people who were willing to work so hard to get Fauziya Kassindja citizenship here so she wouldn't be returned to Togo to face being genitally mutilated.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing, inspiring, touching yet horrifying journey...
Review: There are some books that are so wonderful, so intense, that I simply get lost in them for the few days it takes me to finish them, and once I'm done, I want to share it with the world. This is one of those books, a truly moving, inspiring, fascinating, terrifying, heart-breaking and rewarding tale.

Fauziya Kassindja is a Muslim African woman raised by a father she adored who did not adhere to many of the more restrictive Islamic customs relating to women. Upon his death, however, Fauziya is faced with a forced marriage and forced female circumcision and flees first to Germany and then to the United States, where she is promptly locked away in prision, initially denied asylum and kept imprisoned for an unbelievable amount of time.

The story itself is both fascinating and heart-breaking, but Fauziya tells it with such detail and brutal honesty that it becomes even more powerful. She creates a beautiful picture of her childhood in Africa and life with her beloved father and family, and she conveys clearly and easily her naivete about laws and customs as she went first to the strange land and then to the literal and figurative prison of America. Her ambivalence about America - as the land of hope and escape turned jail - is understandable and she describes why a return to the horrors that awaited her at home suddenly seemed better than remaining in the series of prisons to which she was assigned.

What makes Fauziya such a compelling figure - a real heroine - is her honesty and her struggle to stand up for her beliefs. She personifies the adage that courage is being scared but 'doing it anyway.' I grew angrier and angrier at the way in which women are treated here and around the world, that forced mutilation is not 'political' nor grounds for asylum, that gender has such an impact on how people are treated. Her faith in her religion, her love of her family, her wish to give in despite the horror that would greet her return to Africa all made her such a human, touching figure. This is not a book to be missed - everyone should read it - but for those concerned about the treatment of women and female circumcision - and far too many women have to deal with the brutality of it - this book is absolutely essential. When I finished, I wanted to learn more about Fauziya and what happened to her. I certainly hope that she has found the happiness and peace that she so deserves.