March 2, 2016 - Members of the Center Woman’s Reading Club met on February 18th at the lovely home of Bille Sue Payne. President, Janene Walker presided. Following a short business meeting Barbara Prince reviewed the book Saved by Her Enemy, by Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak.
Saved by Her Enemy is a journey of two different people from opposite sides of the world, of faith, of experience, and of expectations.
Don Teague was a respected journalist, a Christian and family man. When September 11th happened, Don had an overwhelming feeling that his life was going to change. It was shortly after that, that he ended up being hired by NBC News, and sent to Baghdad.
Rafraf grew up in Baghdad in a devout Muslim family. She was one of ten children. The family lived in a small middle class house. She was 10 years old when the Gulf War started. She would sit home and watch the war outside her window. The bombings were colors in the sky and noises. Her parents would tell the children it was bad people attacking them – Americans.
Rafraf was very smart. She had a near photographic memory. After completing school, the Government decided where students would go school, and what they would study. The Government sent Rafraf to major in English. Despite her fear of Americans Rafraf became a translator for NBC in 2003. She was making more money than her father had ever been able to earn. But with the job and the money came threats to her life. She was working for the “enemy”. She was torn; quit the job and give up the income for her family or continue to work and risk death.
It was while working as a translator when Rafraf and Don Teague met. They struck up an unlikely friendship. The two were on assignment together at a local school when insurgents bombed the school. The two were nearly killed. Don gave his body armour to Rafraf. No one was killed that day, but Rafraf couldn’t understand why her own people would kill her own people and why a foreigner would give her his body armour. She says it was a wakeup call.
Don Teague talked to his wife Kiki following the bombing and asked permission to bring Rafraf back to live with the family. Don, Kiki and Don’s fellow correspondents mobilized to get Rafraf out of the country and to the safety of the United States.
Within a year, Rafraf had left everything and everyone she knew and moved in with the Teague family. She left her faith, her family and her culture to live with a middle class Christian family. She spent two years in the US before being granted political Asylum since insurgents had targeted and threatened her family after she left Iraq. It was too dangerous for her to return home. During her time in the United States, Rafraf underwent a cultural and religious transformation. She went from a sheltered Muslim girl to a modern American girl. In 2008 she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Delicious refreshments were served after the program.
