Forbidden Love by Norma Khouri - Exposed (1 Viewer)

[Chand]

Anyone read it? Anyone know her other books? I'm guessing part of her success was because it was said to be a 'true' story.





Her life as a fake: bestseller's lies exposed

Date: July 24 2004

Literary Editor Malcolm Knox uncovers Australia's latest hoax author.

Her tragic story stole readers' hearts and triggered an international outcry. She became a best-selling author in the same league as J.K.Rowling and Michael Moore. She petitioned the United Nations personally, was published in 15 countries, and Australians voted her memoir into their favourite 100 books of all time.

But Norma Khouri is a fake, and so is Forbidden Love.

With Australian sales approaching 200,000, the book told of her lifelong friendship with a girl named Dalia in Amman, Jordan. In their 20s, Khouri wrote, she and Dalia started a hairdressing salon together. Dalia met and fell in love with Michael, a Christian army officer. When their chaste affair was discovered, Dalia was murdered - stabbed 12 times - by her father. Norma fled Jordan to Athens, where she said she wrote her book in internet cafes, and ultimately to Australia, where her publisher Random House sponsored her for a temporary residence visa.

The truth is very different, and may affect Khouri's legal residency status in Australia.

Khouri's real name is Norma Majid Khouri Michael Al-Bagain Toliopoulos, and she only lived in Jordan until she was three years old. She has a US passport and lived from 1973 until 2000 in Chicago. She is married with two children, 13 and 11. She has four American siblings and a mother who are desperate to hear news from her. But she has managed to conceal this double life from her publishers, her agent, lawyers in several continents, the Australian Department of Immigration and, until now, the public.


Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/23/1090464854793.html

 

[veanz]

yeah it was on the front page of the smh -- sure its wrong that she made a whole lot of money on the basis of alleged lies, but its important to keep in perspective the fact that some good did come out of it - she's helped the world, esp western society become more aware of the unyielding, if not harsh difficulties placed on afghan/women of the middle east dictated by their religion.

 

[Chand]

what exactly was dictated by religion in the book? The father stabbing his daughter? :S

 

[Sarah168]

Im not surprised the SMH foiled it

The daily telegraph trumpeted the story a couple of month's ago as a "true" tragedy...

She's still denying it though.

 

[rumour]

Wow, she has a long name!!!

I was so sad after reading that book, why would she make it up??

 

[veanz]

what exactly was dictated by religion in the book? The father stabbing his daughter? :S

in the extreme sense, yes - is not society's norms/unspoken acceptance of values a form of religion?

 

[veanz]

I was so sad after reading that book, why would she make it up??

i was completely overwhelmed with frustration and sadness after reading the book too - and your reaction is my case in point

 

[rumour]

Is said in the article she had the sequel to it, coming out in November,
It would have been a good book!!!

 

[Chand]

I suggest to you veanz, that before you base religion on the society, to research the religion itself.

If you do believe that the values of society is based on religion, then I would like to see some evidence of this, in the scriptures of the religion perhaps?

I doubt that the scripture that was revealed in this religion, Islam, 1400 years ago and that was correctly practised at that time, is the same you see today.

I mean, if a majority of criminal offences such as stealing were done by christians, I doubt you would say, it says in the bible to steal...is it not the opposite?

As to how dare you? Your judging biasly...have you actually read the teachings of the religion, the Qur'an, the Sunnah? Its all based on a book, which does not actually refers to extracts from the scriptures, does it? Regardless whether its a true story or not, there are both good people and bad people in most religions. I just voted by how I saw your response.

 

[Uncouth]

Wow, she has a long name!!!

I was so sad after reading that book, why would she make it up??

I think she was trying to inform people of the things that go on there, but she went the wrong and unethical way to do so by fabricating the majority (if not all) of it. So now one can question whether she did this for the purpose of informing, strengthening her career as an author or for wealth.

It's a shame, though - the credibility of the book has plummeted.

 

[Lexicographer]

It is NOT a hoax! I know Norma personally, I was with her the whole time these events took place. She is a close friend and would never lie about her horrible experiences. How dare these infidels accuse her of lies! I swear upon my toenails that her account is as true as the Sacred Words*! If they were not true how could you explain my anecdotal evidence, the time I allegedly spent with her in Jordan, all those years? The horror I experienced when I saw that girl (I forget her name) stabbed by her relative (was it her dad? I don't remember). Horror!

*Sacred Words: Ni, Peng, and Ni-Wum.

 

[ameh]

fiction sells


who are Ni, Peng and Ni-Wum?

I don't think she's telling the truth, especially from someone who abandoned her children in the US

 

[Lexicographer]

I don't think the article said anything about leaving her children in the US; but rather taking her nuclear family and running off with them, leaving her mother and siblings in the US.

The Sacred Words are from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, watch it sometime.

 

[Hiba]

Wow!!! Well i wouldn't be surprised if it were a hoax.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

I don't understand why she couldn't have said it was fiction.... she could have "made up" the story, but she was wrong by claiming it was her story and was actually true.

 

[veanz]

I suggest to you veanz, that before you base religion on the society, to research the religion itself.

If you do believe that the values of society is based on religion, then I would like to see some evidence of this, in the scriptures of the religion perhaps?

I doubt that the scripture that was revealed in this religion, Islam, 1400 years ago and that was correctly practised at that time, is the same you see today.

I mean, if a majority of criminal offences such as stealing were done by christians, I doubt you would say, it says in the bible to steal...is it not the opposite?

As to how dare you? Your judging biasly...have you actually read the teachings of the religion, the Qur'an, the Sunnah? Its all based on a book, which does not actually refers to extracts from the scriptures, does it? Regardless whether its a true story or not, there are both good people and bad people in most religions. I just voted by how I saw your response.

i completely understand everything youve said - but i think youve misinterpreted what i meant - or probably, more likely, i wasnt being clear enough.

im not being bias in the sense that my main point is that i believe religion has no black or white meaning in the context of this novel: it doesnt have to be written down in a book for people to follow it. For example, and this is just an example, materialism CAN IN A SENSE be regarded as a religion to some people - or be perceived as so by those who are dont follow it. Retrospectively, my view is with the latter in the context of the novel and how her father supposedly treated her.

so perhaps then, religion may have been too a strong word to use in my previous comment: take it as a sort of hyperbole on how the consequent circumstances of the novel came about?

does that make sense? or have i made you even more steamed?