Disfigured - Rania al-Baz

Every morning for the past six years, Rania al-Baz has been the smiling face of a family programme on Saudi television. She was a young, beautiful Saudi TV news presenter
the first woman to have such a job
when her abusive husband beat her into a coma and left her for dead. She remained in a coma for four days and later underwent thirteen operations to reconstruct her face. When she agreed to let horrifying pictures of her ravaged face be made public, her story sparked general criticism of Saudi culture. A month after the tragedy, the first Saudi research into domestic violence began at King Saud University in Riyadh. Ranias story subsequently appeared in the press all over the world.But Ranias memoir is not simply the story of the violence she suffered; nor is it a tale of revenge. She denounces neither Islam nor the traditions of her country, nor even her former husband
only his violence. It is this generosity of spirit that carries her story
about her Saudi Arabian girlhood and adolescence, about her disastrous first marriage, about her public life as a TV journalist, about her life as a mother, about her evolution into an activist on behalf of women.Rania al-Baz had become one of the best known and best loved faces in her home country of Saudi Arabia. She was the presenter of a programme called The Kingdom this Morning on state-owned television. She lives in Saudi Arabia.