Release : January 8, 2000  ( Simon and Schuster )   chosen as one of Simon and Schuster’s  ten top books for 2008

Deborah Kanafani’s rare access to the Middle East provides an insightful portrayal of a region in great need of understanding. Her book is a gripping account of Middle East politics, parental sacrifice, and the compelling stories of unforgettable heroines.  

Bianca Jagger, Human Rights Advocate

Much of this remarkable story takes place in parts of the world many of us will never see, but its essential geography is familiar to us all:  the hardscrabble landscape of the heart, the longing for love, the disappointment when it fails, the stubborn optimism that impels a person to collect the pieces and soldier on, the fearless resolve of parenthood.  Debbie Kanafani's courage is palpable, whether when fighting for her children or in standing up to the powerful men standing in her way.  The unadorned honesty of her writing is luminescent, eminently accessible and impossible to forget.  Ernest Thompson, Academy Award  winning writer (On  Golden Pond) , Forrest Gump, Contact.

Kanafani's writing is graceful, her story poignant, her message essential for all of us who care about Palestinian-Israeli relations. Unveiled is a riveting account of human courage: the courage of a mother to retrieve her children, the courage of women to determine their future [in Arab society], and the courage of ordinary people to build peace in the face of militancy, occupation and despair. Unveiled is a story of politics, feminism and family devotion in the Middle East. More importantly, it is a story of personal struggle to hold onto what matters most.  Ronit Avni, Founder of Just Vision, a nonprofit that promotes peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians, Co Producer of Encounter Point and Control Room

Deborah Kanafani sheds light on a region that remains mysterious today, with an amazing personal journey that brings out the contrasts as well as the similarities between East and West. Her electrifying experiences entertain us, and her unique access to a cloistered world enriches us." Carlotta Pardini, Ambassador at Large, Republic of Panama .

FORBES.COM Book Review Arafat Unveiled David A. Andelman 02.07.08, 4:50 PM ET     More From David A. Andelman   Get quotes  Related Stories Giving For Peace In The Middle East

Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love and Obedience in the Middle East by Deborah Kanafani (Free Press, 2008, $25).

On Oct. 7, 1985, four heavily armed terrorists boarded the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro as it was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said in Egypt. It developed into, even by today's terrorist standards, quite an appalling event--the hijackers shooting an elderly, disabled American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, in cold blood--just because he happened to be Jewish--then pushing him overboard, still in his wheelchair.

The four hijackers were members of the Palestine Liberation Front, a violent offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat, and then based in Tunisia. CBS News sent me there to interview Arafat, who claimed, incredibly, that the PLF was just a rogue splinter group.

The next day, when one of Arafat's minions knocked on my hotel room door and proposed an interview by telephone with the mastermind of the hijacking, Abu Abass, any illusions about Arafat were promptly dispelled. Abass had just fled the Achille Lauro for Yugoslavia, after a brief transit stop in Italy.

Half the world was looking for Abass, and Arafat's people had his phone number in Belgrade (this was long before the days of cellphones, when one could really be reached just about anywhere). OK, I got it: Arafat was not quite as squeaky clean as he made himself out to be.

That's the theme of Unveiled, an exceptional new memoir by a woman who was married for years--miserable years, by all appearances--to the man who quite successfully and all but single-handedly perpetuated the image of Yasser Arafat as a man of peace, consumed with a quest for the independence and prosperity of his beleaguered people, the Palestinians.

Certainly, as Kanafani points out, he had some good intentions. He did indeed want the best for his people. And no doubt he had the far-from-envied task of attempting to reconcile wildly divergent views of the most effective way of achieving these goals. Yet at the same time, Arafat hardly appears the selfless, high-minded statesman and man of peace who would share the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, then promptly devalue it.

No, he was a hypocrite who would stand by while Marwan Kanafani kidnapped their children. Under shariya (Islamic) law, he had the "right" to do so; women in the Muslim world have few rights when it comes to their families, and indeed, most other things. Certainly there have been enough horror stories published of wives who were similarly abused by their Muslim spouses.

Yet this is not, by any means, typical--either of that genre or of the vengeful tell-all that has become so popular by divorced spouses of public figures. Instead, Unveiled is a fascinating tale of loves and opportunities lost. It takes us inside the inner workings of the Palestinian territories and into the drawing rooms of many of those who are laboring so hard against such high odds for very high stakes indeed: the independence of the Palestinian people and a homeland they can call their own.

Hers is also the tale of scores of women Kanafani sought out or ran into on her travels through New York, Washington, California and across the Middle East, including the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. These are women--brave, strong, often brilliant women--who sought nothing more than respect and the freedom to believe and act as their Western peers, without the straightjackets in which Muslim law and practice confines them.

Indeed, this is the heart of the book. And while her own personal tale is perhaps the most heartbreaking of all--how she was excluded from the lives of her children, forced, as an outsider, to watch them grow up without her, her nose pressed against the glass--at the same time, she has now fulfilled her pledges to these other women whose lives intersected her own.

She has told their story, and now it is up to us, her readers, to act. At the end of the book, in lieu of an index or bibliography, is a 14-page list of websites of "Palestinian and Israeli Organizations Working for Peace." She exhorts us simply to "do further research."

Frankly, it's the least we can do to right the wrongs Deborah Kanafani has experienced and chronicled in Unveiled.

David A. Andelman, former Paris correspondent for CBS News, is Executive Editor of Forbes.com and author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.

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Book Excerpt Daniel McGinn Book Review

anafani’s fascinating autobiographical tale portrays several strong Middle Eastern women, not the least of whom is herself.”

–Booklist

“The tales she relates of Palestinian politics, Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and Arab women bucking tradition to struggle for social justice are captivating.”

–Publishers Weekly

Deborah Kanafani is an articulate speaker and a skilled writer. She mesmerizes her audience with her words and personalityHer first hand account of a world we know so little about is a welcome addition a living experience.Her story is straight forward intriguing and brings the sweetness and the agony of living. Once you open the book you will not put it down till you are done, ..and then you are never done. Dr.Aida Takla O’Reilly, Hollywood Foreign Press and  former President of  The Hollywood Golden Globes

What Deborah Kanafani’s remarkable book unveils is the human face of the Arab woman in search of her own freedom and self expression. She writes about the under used resource of women who understand that the only way to achieve peace is to abandon the path of violence and to proudly assert the path of a non-violent struggle for peace. Deborah Kanafani writes a book not only moving to read for the American woman, but a book that will open the eyes of the American policy maker. Dr. Steve Cohen . Director of The Institute for Peace and Understanding in The Middle East. Yale University

FREDERICK NEWS POST

American unveils her Middle East experiences in new book Originally published January 23, 2008 By Ron Cassie

<> Photo by courtesyPhoto Deborah Kanafani         Deborah Kanafani gave her mother, Barbara Marks of Frederick, an advance copy of her first book for Christmas. She hid it under Marks' mattress so she couldn't read it until Kanafani had returned home to New York. "Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love and Obedience in The Middle East" was published last week by Simon and Schuster, Free Press. The book combines autobiography and interviews with the wives of Arab leaders. Kanafani describes her marriage to Yasir Arafat's senior advisor and spokesman during the 1994 'Declaration of Peace,' and life in the Middle East after her divorce when, under Islamic law, she lost custody of her two children. Kanafani, a Lebanese-American Christian, met her husband, a soccer star turned Palestinian official, at the United Nations when she was a graduate student at Adelphi University. The marriage introduced her to diplomats, dignitaries and international leaders, but left her bereft of her independence. After her divorce, Kanafani went to the Middle East in 1997 to write a book on the wives of Arab leaders. While her children Deanna, then 12, and Tarik, 10, were visiting her ex-husband on the Palestinian West Bank, he claimed custody. When violence escalated in 2000, the children were evacuated to Jordan with the help of the U.S. State Department and flown back to the U.S. "From '97 to 2000 it was very tough, and she did her best to keep in touch," Marks said. "I was worried I wouldn't see my grandchildren again." Today, Deanna is headed for law school and Tarik works in Los Angeles. Barbara Marks has lived here for 13 years with Kanafani's stepfather, Alan Marks. Kanafani also has two siblings in Montgomery County. During her years in the Middle East, Kanafani formed friendships with Suha Arafat, Queen Dina of Jordan, and other wives of Arab leaders. She ran conflict resolution programs for Palestinians and Israelis. While trying to regain custody of her children, Kanafani said she found strength in the women whose lives she documented. She believes her book will show the world a different side of the Middle East. "I don't think people see men and women from Palestine, for example, as human beings. Any time they are seen it's always (in the context of) war or conflict and the result of that has been de-humanize people." A one-hour interview with National Public Radio's Terry Gross is expected to air soon and Simon and Schuster named "Unveiled" one of its top 10 books for 2008. The author has great dreams for what her work can accomplish. "I hope that when people meet the characters in my book, all the women and men committed and working hard for peace that I have met, they will start to believe that peace in the Middle East is possible, too."

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