Stolen Lives : Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
SynopsisPlot
Born in 1953, the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide, Malika was adopted by the King at the age of five, and was brought up as the companion to his little daughter. Spending most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, Malika was one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege.
Story
About this book
Malika Oufkir was born in 1953, the eldest daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir, who served as one of King Hassan II of Morocco's most powerful advisors. At the age of five, Malika was taken from her family and adopted by the King himself, raised inside the royal palace as a companion to his young daughter. Her childhood unfolded within the secluded world of the court harem, surrounded by privilege and ritual, yet cut off from ordinary life outside the palace walls.
In 1972, General Oufkir was implicated in a failed coup attempt against the King and was killed. The consequences for his family were severe. Malika, her mother, and her siblings were arrested and held in desert prisons for roughly twenty years, enduring isolation and harsh conditions far removed from the luxury of her earlier life. This memoir traces the full arc of that experience, from the gilded confinement of the royal court to the years of imprisonment that followed.
The book is set almost entirely within Morocco, moving between Rabat's royal palace and remote detention sites in the south. Oufkir's account is shaped by the contrast between two very different forms of captivity and by the question of what personal identity can survive when freedom is taken away so early and for so long.
