I recently read this riveting memoir by a Canadian journalist, who in 2008 was kidnapped in Somalia by Islamic jihadists. Amanda Lindout was held captive for 15 months along with a friend, Nigel Brennan, a photographer from Australia. Attempting to escape after about five months in captivity, the pair was caught and held under even tighter security, Amanda having been blamed for the escape attempt even though it was Nigel’s idea. She was thrown into a dark room devoid of light, and forced to lay on her side 24 hours a day, except when saying her Muslim prayers (she convinced her captors she was willing to convert in an attempt to gain their favor.) She was repeatedly raped and fed very little food, and tortured before she gave in and begged her mother to pay her captors. It cost half a million dollars for their eventual release, but the story of how Amanda survived her horrific ordeal is truly amazing and a testament to the power of the human spirit. She later established a nonprofit organization, the Global Enrichment Foundation, to help support education in Somalia, since she felt the lives of the teen boys who had guarded them in captivity may have turned out differently if they had had more education instead of indoctrination in religious extremism.
