"Stolen Lives"

Paper Summary:

The paper describes the story of Malika Oufkir's life as recounted in her memoir "Stolen Lives" and shows how Malika's childish desire to become a glamorous actress sustained her through the ordeal she suffered. The paper maintains that, despite its subjective nature, the book is a compelling portrait of political imprisonment and injustice that took away the best years of a young woman's life. The paper concludes that as recent events have brought the question of the rights of the politically imprisoned to the forefront of our own national consciousness, "Stolen Lives" is a worthy dramatization of the issue.

From the Paper:

"The story of Malika Oufkir's life rivals that of the made-up tale of the supposed surviving princess and daughter of the last czar, Anastasia. Only Oufkir's memoir is nonfiction, and perhaps more worthy of cinema. "Although Stolen Lives would be a smashing good tale if it were fiction, it is all the more compelling since it is true," wrote one reviewer (Sherrer, 2001). Imagine this beginning of a film. A young girl, selected by the capricious hand of fate, is given the honor of becoming the adopted daughter of the King of Morocco, King Muhammad V and is sent away at the age of five from her parents to be raised with the king's daughter as the girl's companion in a harem. The girl has been taken away from all that is familiar, but she lives a charmed life of luxury. When she is a teenager, she is sent back to live with her parents, her usefulness exhausted to the royal family. She must get to know her parents and siblings again, for they are now strangers."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Oufkir, Malika. Stolen Lives: 20 Years in a Desert Jail. New York: Miramax Books, 2001.
• Regehr, John. "Stolen Lives" Book Review. Book Pages. 2001. 21 Jun 2007.<http://books.regehr.org/reviews/stolenlives.html>
• Sherrer, Hans. "Stolen Lives." Book Review: Justice: Denied -- The Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted. 21 Jun 2007.<http://www.justicedenied.org/stolenlives.htm>

More papers on "Stolen Lives":

• Analytical Essay # 6783 : "Our Stolen Future"
• Creative Essay # 3913 : "Marginalized Characters - A Comparison of Three Works"
• Essay # 52685 : "Identity Theft and Fraud"

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