Forbidden Lies is a documentary film which was released in Australia in 2007 and in the US in 2009.
Here is some basic information about it:
** Produced by Sally Regan
** Directed by Anna Broinowski
** Run time: 100 minutes
This is an unusual film about an unusual case. The subject of the film is a woman who was born in Jordan in 1970:
Norma Khouri, who is the author of a book that was published by Random House in 2003.
The subject of the book is a so-called honour killing that took place in Jordan in 1996.
The Australian title is Forbidden Love, while the American title is Honor Lost.
Part one
According to the book, Norma Khouri was living in Jordan in the 1990s when her best friend Dalia, who came from a Muslim family, met and fell in love with a man who was a Christian.
They met in secret on several occasions. When her family found out, they were furious. Dalia was killed by her father in order to save the family’s honour.
Norma Khouri left Jordan shortly after the murder.
She was afraid she might be harmed as well,
because she had known about the secret meetings and she had helped setting them up.
The book was written in Australia. According to the author, it is a true story about a horrible tradition in Jordan.
The book was translated into several languages and became an international best-seller. More than 250,000 copies have been sold world-wide.
This is what we are told in the first part of the film.
In the second part of the film, we learn that almost everything Norma Khouri says about herself and the people around her is strongly contested.
The Australian reporter Malcolm Knox claims the book is a hoax. The Jordanian reporter Rana Husseini makes the same claim.
Working independently, these two reporters have studied the book very carefully and they have discovered almost one hundred factual mistakes and dubious passages.
Here are a few examples:
** The author claims one of Jordan’s neighbours is Kuwait, which is not true.
** She says the Christian man paid for a haircut with a 50 Dinar note, but in 1996 this note was not yet in circulation.
** She claims a Jordanian woman must be covered from head to toe when she goes out. This is not true.
** She says a Jordanian woman cannot leave home alone, that she must be accompanied by a male relative, such as her father or brother. This is not true, either.
** She mentions a location in Amman where Jordanian men go for entertainment, but this place was not built in 1996.
In the third part of the film Norma Khouri joins Anna Broinowski on a fact-finding tour to Jordan.
The author wants to show the director that the story presented in the book is true. However, she does not really succeed.
In Amman they visit the mortuary. They want to check the records to find evidence that Dalia was brought there in 1996. But there is no record of a Dalia in that year.
Whenever there is a problem like this, Norma Khouri has an explanation. She says Dalia is not her real name. The author changed the names of people and locations in the book in order to protect her family.
She will not say the real name, but she offers to write it on a piece of paper and gives it to Anna. The records of the mortuary are searched again. Still no luck.
Part two
Norma Khouri has a new explanation. She says the murder did not take place in 1996, as stated in the book, it was actually in 2001.
This means she is changing the chronology of the case. This explains the use of the 50 Dinar note and the entertainment venue that did not exist in 1996.
It is time for another visit to the mortuary where the records for 2001 are searched. Still no luck.
Norma Khouri has a new explanation. She says the murder did not take place in Amman, as stated in the book. It happened in Irbid.
After a while, we see an old newspaper clipping about a murder in Irbid coming out of a fax machine.
The article is from August 2001. But, as Anna explains, this merely creates a new problem:
In August 2001, the manuscript for the book was almost completed. How could Norma Khouri write about the murder of Dalia before it took place?
There is more: Norma Khouri did not live in Jordan in the 1990s, as she claims in the book.
She was born in Jordan in 1970, but she left the country with her family when she was about three years old.
She grew up in Chicago in the US, which explains her strong American accent.
Faced with facts such as these, Norma Khouri refuses to give in. She insists the book is a true story and that Dalia is a real person.
Malcolm Knox in Australia and Rana Husseini in Jordan both say the book is a hoax.
If Norma Khouri had called her book a novel inspired by actual events, no one would have complained about it. But she refuses to do that.
In this film, the story moves back and forth many times. Claims are followed by counter-claims. There are more examples than I can mention in this review.
By the time we get to the end of the film, it is hard for the viewer to know what to believe. It is hard to know where the truth lies.
The director never says the book is a hoax.
She does not tell the viewer what to think.
She merely presents the facts.
The viewers must make up their own minds and they must draw their own conclusions about the case.
Honour killings happen in Jordan. No one denies this. Norma Khouri says she wanted to tell the world about a horrible tradition in this country.
This is a noble purpose, but since her book is now seen by many as a hoax, she has perhaps done a disservice to the struggle against the so-called honour-killings.
Part three
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
78 percent = IMDb
85 percent = Meta
87 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
91 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them.
As stated above, this is an unusual film about an unusual case. When you have watched it, you realise that you must think twice before you believe what you read or hear.
Every statement – every detail - must be considered carefully in order to decide if it is true or false.
I know what I think about the case, but I will not tell you what to think. Watch the film and decide for yourself.
This film is highly recommended as a case study of a possible hoax. We have to ask:
What is true and what is false?
Who is right and who is wrong?
Who is telling the truth and who is telling a lie?
PS # 1. The following four articles by Malcolm Knox were published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24 July 2004:
** “The lies stripped bare”
** “Best-seller lies exposed”
** “Norma Khouri: Myth and fact”
** “Timeline of her life”
PS # 2. The following article about the author and her book is available online:
“Khouri – the troubled life of a fake,”
The Age
31 July 2004
PS # 3. The following items are available online:
Richard Kuipers,
“Review: Forbidden Lies,”
Variety
12 March 2007
Kenneth Turan,
“Movie review: Forbidden Lies,”
Los Angeles Times
10 April 2009
PS # 4. The following article is available online:
Lyn Garrity,
“Five Fake Memoirs that Fooled the Literary World,”
The Smithsonian Magazine
20 December 2010
PS # 5. Anna Broinowski’s film about Norma Khouri and her book has been compared to remarkable documentary films, such as The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Capturing the Friedmans (2003).
*****
Forbidden Love
by Norma Khouri
(2003)
This international bestseller has
been described by many as a hoax
*****
Norma Khouri
is a pen name used by the
author Norma Bagain Toliopoulos
(who was born in Jordan in 1970)
*****
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