Why a Booktrail?
1960, 1966 and later: A woman’s children are taken to Yemen. She doesn’t see them until years later.
Without Mercy
What you need to know before your trail
This is the story of a woman’s fight against a violent and tyrannical relationship, and her struggle to reclaim her two daughters, sold into marriage in the Yemen. Mirian Kamouhi – half Pakistani, half English – met Muthana Muhsen in Birmingham in 1960, when she was 17. They never married, but had seven children, the two eldest of whom were sent to Yemen in 1966 for a holiday. Their mother, fighting ill-health and with little money, would not meet them again until they were adults.
Travel Guide
Yemen – Maqbanah, Hockail and Ashube
Zana, 15 and Nadia, 13 arrive in Maqbanah, and live in a town called Hockail/Yakhtul and Ashube respectively. Their mother, Miriam Ali, appealed unsuccessfully to the Foreign Office for assistance, but was told that the Yemeni government had stated that as they were now married to Yemeni men, they could only leave the country with their husbands’ permission.
Following many years of appeals and an outcry in the UK media, Yemeni government gave the family permission to leave the country in 1988, on the condition that their children stayed in Yemen. (Zana had one child, Marcus, Cyan and Leam, and Nadia three, Haney and Tina are two of them)
The picture of a veiled woman on the cover of Sold is Nadia Muhsen.
According to Zana’s Instagram in 2015, Nadia and her children (including Marcus) had made it back to England.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Without Mercy
Destination: Yemen, Maqbanah, Birmingham Author/guide: Miriam Ali Departure Time: 1960, 1966, later
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