Play Based on Saddam Hussein Novel to Open in Baghdad This Week
from the what-he-really-wants-to-do-is-direct dept.
A romantic novel widely believed to have been written by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been turned into a play that will open this week in the Iraqi National Theater. The novel, titled Zabibah and the King, is the story of a king who falls in love with an unhappily married woman. The woman in the story is raped on January 17 – the same day the U.S.-led attack on Iraq began in 1991 – after which the king captures the rapists, restores the woman’s honor, and dies. Although the novel was published anonymously, the enthusiastic reviews it received in the state-controlled Iraqi media left most observers convinced it was actually written by Saddam.
