Andrea C Hoffmann – författare

The whole world knows the face of the young man with the bright black eyes. He is in the process of becoming an icon, a symbol, similar to the famous photo of Che Guevara. The face is that of Raif Badawi, who was nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Arrested in Saudi Arabia, he was sentenced to ten years'' imprisonment and 1000 lashes - a de facto death sentence.The woman who succeeded in getting such people as Barack Obama and Prince Charles to appeal personally to the Saudi King for Badawi''s release is his wife, Ensaf Haidar, who began the campaign to free her husband with a self-painted poster in front of a small church in Sherbrooke, Canada.When Raif Badawi and Ensaf Haidar fell in love with each other as adolescents, they did so in violation of every moral precept in the strictly Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During their clandestine love affair, the young couple had no idea that, more than a decade later, Ensaf''s love for Raif would attract the attention of politicians from around the world as the blogger''s wife now mobilises global public opinion in an effort to save her husband from murder at the hands of the Saudi judiciary. With a courage born of desperation, she is fighting from exile in Canada to secure the release of the father of her three children, and is bringing great pressure to bear on the murderous regime in her native country.Ensaf Haidar tells Raif''s and her own story: the story of their shared liberal ideas and her fight for her husband''s release.

When Patience Ibrahim''s husband died, she feared that her life was over. She had prayed every night for a baby to complete her family, and suddenly she found herself a nineteen-year-old widow, alone in the world. But when she fell in love again, a happy future seemed possible. Patience married once more , and was overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant.A few days later, everything fell apart. Men from Boko Haram arrived at her door, killing Patience''s new husband and kidnapping her. This is the incredible true story of her and her baby daughter''s survival, against all the odds.

In August 2014, Farida, like any ordinary teenage girl, was enjoying the summer holidays before her last year at school. But Farida lived in the mountains of northern Iraq — and what happened next was unimaginable. Her village was an ISIS target. ISIS jihadists murdered the men and boys, including her father and brother, before taking Farida and the other women prisoner. This is the story of what happened to Farida after she was captured: the beatings, the rapes, the markets where ISIS sold women like cattle, and Farida''s realisation that the more resistant she became, the harder it was for her captors to continue their atrocities against her. So she struggled, she bit, she kicked, she accused her captors of going against their religion, until, one day, the door to her room was left unlocked. She took her chance and, with five younger girls in her charge, fled into the Syrian desert. Farida showed incredible courage in the face of the unthinkable, and now with The Girl Who Beat ISIS she bravely relives her story to bear witness. Searing and immediate, this is the first memoir by a young woman that shows first-hand what life is like for innocents caught up in the maelstrom of day-to-day life with ISIS.

Ensaf Haidar berättar om sitt äktenskap med den saudiske aktivisten och bloggaren Raif Badawi, om en kärlekssaga som överlevt mot alla odds och om den världsomspännande kampen för att befria honom från fångenskap.

De två gifter sig 2002, efter att ha lyckats övervinna både hennes familjs motstånd och den saudiska kulturens stränga konventioner. Efter den förbjudna romansen, bröllopsdagens glädje och de äktenskapliga vardagsproblemen upptäcker Ensaf att Raif är aktiv inom en liberal rörelse. De knyts närmare varandra medan Raif blir alltmer orädd i sin kritik av Saudiarabiens sociala ordning, särskilt kvinnornas situation – tills hans aktiviteter uppmärksammas av den religiösa polisen. Då familjen övervakas och trakasseras måste Ensaf till sist acceptera att den enda lösningen för henne och deras tre små barn är att gå exil, i förhoppningen att Raif snart kan ansluta sig till dem. Men Raif blir arresterad, och straffet – tio års fängelse och 1 000 piskrapp – förändrar allt. Ensaf måste ta upp kampen för sin mans liv, genom att skapa ett internationellt stöd för hans frihet … och för deras rätt att återförenas som en familj.

Denna djupt rörande memoar ger en unik inblick i de villkor som kvinnorna i Saudiarabien lever under och är också en inspirerande berättelse om hur två modiga människorättsaktivister skapas. Raif Badawi tilldelades 2015 Sacharovpriset för tankefrihet.

”Min uppfattning är att det är ett medeltida straff ... som inte hör hemma i ett samhälle som tillåter fri media och som tillåter människor att uttrycka sina åsikter.” Margot Wallström i Ekot 2015