Deborah Kanafani is the author of the 2008 autobiography, “Unveiled: How An American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love and Obedience in the Middle East,” which details her marriage to Marwan Kanafani, a senior advisor and spokesperson for Yasser Arafat. Deborah also documents the stories of many of the courageous woman she encountered, including Queen Dina of Jordan and Yasser Arafat’s wife Suha, while living in the Middle East.
Last Thursday in Los Angeles Deborah spoke about her book and her experiences.
Part 1 – Introduction (3:59)
Deborah opened by talking about her engagement and marriage to the “charming and dashing” Palestinian Marwan whom she met at the United Nations. But Deborah quickly discovered that she “lived with somebody that really had a very secret life” and that she had failed to understand his “connection to the Palestinian ‘Cause.’”
After they were married the couple moved to Washington, D.C. where Marwan became the Arab League representative and Palestinian Ambassador. In the nation’s capitol Deborah’s life became very isolated because, “the world that those people live in — not only diplomatic world but within the Palestinian political community — is not a world where they like to let outsiders in.”
Despite the isolation and some horrible circumstances of her marriage (see below), Deborah was able to find some positives in her situation: “The one good thing that happened, beside my two children, during the marriage was that I got to meet many fascinating women who were married to Arabic leaders. And these women just impressed me so much. They were strong, they were leaders in their own right. They were rebelling against the fundamentalism in their countries. They were fighting for women’s rights. They were doing remarkable things.”
“Unveiled” is the story of these women as well as Deborah’s own journey.
Part 2 – Yasser and Suha Arafat (8:42)
Despite talking to Yasser Arafat many times over the phone, Deborah did not meet the PLO leader until his first trip to the U.S. in 1993 to sign the Declaration of Principles with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin which paved the way for limited Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank.
Upon meeting Arafat Deborah was sure that, “he knew that he had something that [she] would never have — [her] husband’s complete devotion.”
Much of this segment, however, is dedicated to telling a couple of interesting stories about Suha Arafat who did not accompany her husband on his historic trip to the delight of Arafat’s advisors who universally “hated” her. Much to their chagrin, however, Suha was still able to steal the spotlight during the signing statement from “her living room in Tunisia.”
Deborah also reveals how Arafat’s marriage to Suha was leaked to the press by Suha’s mother who was worried about public perception of the relationship between Arafat and her daughter.
Part 3 – Baha Kikhia (2:07)
In Part 3 Deborah briefly tells the story of Baha Kikhia whose husband Mansour was the Libyan Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations. Mansour eventually resigned from his posts in protest of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s human rights violations. The couple then started a human rights organization for the Libyan people. Three years later Mansour was kidnapped in Cairo, Egypt.
Baha’s subsequent search for her husband eventually led her to a surreal meeting in the middle of the Libyan desert with Gadhafi (excerpted from page 115 of “Unveiled“):
“You know, I love Mansour very much,” Gadhafi said.
“Me, too,” Baha answered again. They laughed despite her tears.
“You know what I think? I think it was the CIA that took him. Mansour wasn’t the opposition. He was my friend.”
“No, let’s speak honestly. We know he was a leader in the opposition, but there is nothing wrong with that. Opposition means, they disagree with your thoughts. It means being against certain ideas, not against you, there is nothing wrong with that. He always said you were his friend, but he disagrees with you. Remember, Mansour didn’t like to fight with anyone.”
Despite Baha’s heroic efforts Mansour was never found. The CIA would eventually give Baha a piece of paper with two lines on it saying that her husband was executed but she refuses to accept it as valid.
Part 4 – Spying on Hamas and Kidnapped Children (9:53)
Like Baha, Deborah has also found herself in the middle of some rather scary situations. At one point the United States government tried to leverage her 70-year-old father’s freedom and assets to get Deborah to spy on Hamas.
“The FBI started contacting me and asking me to meet them at this airport hangar in Santa Monica. So I went a few times and basically they were saying to me, ‘if you go spy on Hamas we’ll let your father go’. So they were holding him like a pawn,” Deborah stated. But she refused the Agency’s offer stating, “I don’t know anything about Hamas and I would never risk my life or my children’s life and I refused to do it.”
Because of her father’s burdensome legal troubles Deborah made the fateful decision to send her children to visit their father in the West Bank city of Ramallah. When Deborah later followed them to the Middle East she was informed by her ex-husband that their children would remain with him, that she no longer had any rights to them, that he would not provide her with any financial support and that she should return to the United States.
“The next day I started to call the consulate, the embassy, I called the state department in America, I called this woman that my children had given me the phone number of who was with the World Bank and basically everyone told me the same thing — you no longer have any rights to your children. You are under Islamic law. There are no reciprocal agreements. There is absolutely nothing you can do.”
With few options other than trying to kidnap her children back, Deborah met with Yasser Arafat who, limited by Islamic law, offered her a job so that she could obtain a visa from the Israelis and remain near her children.
Part 5 – Jordan Queen Dina and Toujan al-Faisal (6:59)
Two other woman whose stories are told in Unveiled are Queen Dina of Jordan and Toujan al-Faisal who was Jordan’s first female Member of Parliament.
Queen Dina became the first of King Hussein’s four wives when they married in 1955. When they divorced two years later she became known as Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Abdul-Hamid of Jordan. Queen Dina eventually fell in love with the King’s enemy – a Palestinian guerilla leader – which resulted in thousands of people dying when the King declared war against the Palestinians in what is now referred to as Black September. Queen Dina is also remembered for secretly arranging one of the largest prisoner exchanges ever.
Toujan al-Faisal was accused of apostasy and there were calls for her execution when she stood up to religious fundamentalism in Jordan. The court eventually dismissed her case and she was elected to Parliament in 1993 where she served until 1997. During their time together Toujan explained how Deborah could help Jordanians:
“People in the Middle East are either born as an oppressor or they were born to be oppressed. The only way to make change was to embarrass her country and its laws. The only way to change our laws is through retention from outsiders. Now that they know outsiders are watching Jordan wants to appear progressive. That’s why I wanted to meet you [Deborah] so that you can be our messenger.”
Part 6 – Return of her Children (9:10)
After three years of living in the West Bank in order to be close to her children, Deborah took a trip to the U.S. Shortly thereafter the Second Intifada occurred and her children were evacuated to Jordan by her ex-husband’s current wife. Scared herself, the American born current wife was amenable to sending Deborah’s children back to the U.S. but needed to get them passports since her husband had sent them to Jordan with Palestinian documents.
With the help of her cousin Donna Shalala, who was Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, Deborah got her children passports overnight. And her children, then 13 and 15, were put on a plane out of Jordan just as her ex-husband was returning to get them.
Deborah was quick to point out that it was not quite the Hollywood ending her book publisher was looking for as her children went through difficult adjustment periods. However, she did end the talk on an extremely positive note:
“One of the great thrills of being there was meeting these incredible Palestinians and Israelis who wanted to work together for peace. And I don’t mean a few, I mean a lot… and there is just a huge grassroots civil movement going on and unfortunately it is not shown on the news. The news would rather show the war that is going on. But I tell you that these peacemakers are out there and they are strong and the people have a big desire to work together.”
