Imagine….

You are not allowed outside to play after 9 years old.

You can be married off as young as 5 years old to an old man you have never met.

You are not allowed to speak to any men (13+) who aren’t your relatives or look them in the eye. This includes anyone on the street, shopkeepers or even your own doctor. Your father or brother will speak for you – even as a teenage girl or grown woman.

No riding bikes, or swimming or going out with your friends to the beach. In fact when you do go out, you are covered from head to foot in (not white clothing to reflect the heat like the men around you, but) black flowing robes called a burqa, with only your eyes showing.

Beatings by your brothers, father, uncles or male cousins are normal for any infraction (such as looking at someone you shouldn’t) and the law not only allows it, but recommends it.

This is the life that 18 year old Rahaf Mohammed escapes, but only after months of planning, and outside online help and advice before she flees her family. But even then, her wealthy father’s influence had a long reach. Again Rahaf asked for help, this time through Twitter on her cellphone. Finally someone listened….

A riveting read, REBEL is a true life story of being born as a girl and growing up with 6 siblings, and her mother and father in Saudi Arabia. The constant malice she lived under as she began to question the rules girls lived by is an ever growing threat – exploding in violence from the men in her family, which is encouraged by her own mother.

REBEL is all the more shocking as Rahaf only escaped in 2019, and male control and brutal practices are still happening in Saudi Arabia today. Rahaf Mohammed could never understand why girls and women are deemed invisible, and she refused to be that. Her fight back is inspirational, jaw dropping and and courageous, now advocating for women and girl’s rights in her new home of Canada.

Author – Rahaf Mohammed

Age – 16+   (Non-Fiction)

(2022, Macmillan, Saudi Arabia, Family, Force, Control, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Social Media, Flee, Escape plan, School, Questions, Unfairness, Brutal, Misogyny, Invisible, Worthless, Rebellion, Internet, Subservience, Beatings, Obey, Passport, Canadian Government, Conflict, Betrayal, Bullies, Crime, Growing Up, Revenge, Secret, Non-Fiction)