Marianne Alireza

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Family

American adventuress who married an Arab and lived in his harem. She met Ali at 19 in college, a handsome engineering student from Saudi, Arabia, and they fell in love. They married in 1943 and daughter Hamida, the first of their five kids, was born 3/07/1945. Ali was appointed to diplomatic service. He tried to prepare her for a different world as they sailed on 8/06/1945. She wore a long black cloak and a veiled face with no contact with men or social life outside the harem, the family of women and children of the household. She found heat, flies, barren desert, white turrets and mud walls, few doctors and no sanitation, a difficult language and massive culture shock. There were also gorgeous oriental carpets over dirt and sand floors, magical lavender night with Moslem prayers singing in the stillness, camels and Bedouin tends. She became friends with the family women and kids in the robust commune. There were occasional visits to Europe and the U.S. In New York, 1958, without warning and giving no reason, Ali divorced her. By Moslem law, the husband may keep the kids, the wife has little or no rights. She joined in an unheard of battle for custody, and won. She kept her kids and wrote an autobiography, "At the Drop of a Veil", 1971.