WW | investigation

This is Malcom knox and Caroline overington Caption Intro to go here is nulla amet wisi. “I did Faccum ver se facil

BUTlie, I LIED FOR A REASON” The inside story of disgraced author NORMA KHOURI

Feted then demonised, IMAGINE CONCOCTING a story – on the basis that you’re a so fantastic – and initially so credible – “distinguished talent”. There’s even a Norma Khouri, author of that you end up with agents, publishers, letter from the daughter of the US vice- the best-selling book, journalists, booksellers and an adoring president testifying to your credentials. public eating out of your hands. Everyone wants to read you, hear Forbidden Love, was You’ve become an international best- you, help you, especially given all the revealed as a literary selling author, published in 16 countries, death threats. Only trouble is, you’re a translated into a dozen languages. There con artist and a fraud. You’ve told so hoax. Now, as a new are television interviews, feature-length many barefaced lies, that it’s all you can documentary about articles about you, packed writers’ festivals. do to keep the floor show from collapsing. Norma premieres in A fan has penned a love song in your One false move and you’re gone. honour. You’ve been given permanent Welcome to the dark night of Norma Australia, David Leser residence in a new land – in this case, Khouri’s soul. 

2 | WW MARCH 2007 WW MARCH 2007 | 3 first met Norma Khouri in May I couldn’t stop laughing. And I thought, just misled, exaggerated or lied to us at least 2003, when I was invited to chair ‘Oooh … all the other movies, what have 80 times during the previous 60 minutes. several panels at the Auckland I been missing?’ ” Writer’s Festival. One of the It was at this point that I asked her alcolm Knox, the panels was about the art of writing whether she had ever had a lover. She literary editor of memoirs and how these personal was 34 years and had lived almost her The Sydney Morning storiesI helped us understand political issues. entire life in the often harsh and puritanical Herald, was standing Norma was one of the three women on the world of the Middle East. Had she ever in his kitchen playing panel, the other two being Kim Mahood, known what it meant to be loved? with his one-year- writer and visual artist, and “No,” she replied softly. “There was a oldM son when the phone rang one morning Aminatta Forna, the London-based writer man in Greece who I liked and we would in February 2003. The call was a tip-off and broadcaster from Sierra Leone. kiss and he would hold me … but nothing from a Sydney-based Jordanian alerting him Norma was quite clearly the star attraction, more.” She was quite clearly claiming to to information coming out of his country. despite her being the least gifted of the three be an Arab virgin. Two prominent Jordanian women had writers. Her story was dramatic, racy and Three months later, when I interviewed become sufficiently concerned about Norma it played well to people’s prejudices about her again at the Byron Bay Writers Festival Khouri’s book to have begun compiling a Islam and backward, patriarchal Arab men. in northern NSW, we again returned to dossier on the author. This would result in I had met Norma the night before our this theme. “Now I’m turning all shades them asking Norma’s publishers, Random interview and we’d hit it off immediately. of red,” she replied when I asked, this House, to reclassify her work as fiction, a She was warm and ebullient, and her story time publicly, if she had ever had a sexual request which the publishers rejected. quite clearly sensational. It reminded me relationship. “I’d like to say that I am A full 18 months transpired before of why I’d been so drawn to the Middle married to the cause, but I have had Malcolm Knox was able to write the first East as a young correspondent during some experiences with someone that of what turned out to be a Walkley Award- the 1980s. The region held everything I care about deeply.” winning series of articles with his colleague, for me – desert traditions, messianic faiths The audience was enthralled. Here Caroline Overington. “Norma Khouri is a and ancient conflict. she was, a standard-bearer for oppressed fake,” he wrote, “and so is Forbidden Love. Over dinner and a bottle of wine, women, at once so alone, but so courageous, “Khouri’s real name is Norma Majid Norma and I talked for nearly five hours stubborn, forthright. At the end of the Khouri Michael Al-Bagain Toliopoulos and about the tragedy of her life in Jordan hour-long session, they applauded for she only lived in Jordan until she was three and about her campaign to save other a full 30 seconds. Many people were years old. She has a US passport and lived women from fates similar to Dalia’s. “I moist-eyed as they joined the queue from 1973 until 2000 in Chicago. She is hardly sleep,” she said, talking non-stop to meet her, my own daughter – who married with two children, 13 and 11. and smoking obsessively. “I have women happens to be named Jordan – among “She has four American siblings and a writing to me begging me to help them. them. Little did we know then that she’d mother who are desperate to hear news 

This is Malcom knox and Caroline You remember her, don’t you? The overington Caption Intro to go “I HARDLY SLEEP. I HAVE WOMEN WRITING TO ME BEGGING ME TO HELP woman whose stirring account of her here is nulla amet wisi. Faccum ver best friend’s honour killing caused such se facil ute core core tie modiam, THEM. I SIT UP ALL NIGHT ANSWERING THEIR EMAILS.” a sensation here four years ago – 200,000 books sold in Australia alone, voted by readers as one of their 100 all-time murder, while at the same time, issuing a I sit up all night answering their emails.” favourite books. worldwide call to action against this ancient She talked about how much she Perhaps it was the timing – two years practice. “I made Dalia a promise that her missed her family in Jordan, particularly after September 11, three years after death would not be in vain,” she told The her mother, but how she believed she a series of rapes by Lebanese gang Weekly in 2003, when this magazine – like would be killed if she returned to her members in Sydney – that inspired so many other publications – chose to highlight country. She had dishonoured the family much interest about a woman’s place her extraordinary tale. (The Weekly by running away and speaking out. in the Arab world. published an interview with Norma, along “I can’t go back,” she said. Here was the “harrowing true story” of with a six-page extract from the book.) I was amazed by her fluency in English “Dalia”, a Jordanian Muslim who had been “As long as those laws continue to exist and her seeming sophistication with all murdered by her father for having an illicit and as long as women continue to be killed things Western. How did she speak relationship with “Michael”, Catholic man. and men get off, I cannot rest,” she said. English so well? “Private American She had been stabbed 12 times in the chest By her own account, Norma fled schools in Jordan,” she replied. And for daring to fall in love with this Royal Jordan after Dalia’s death in 1996 and what of her exposure to Western art, Jordanian Army officer, whom she had met went to live in Greece, where, between music and cinema? “Oh, my God,” she while working with Norma in a unisex hair housekeeping jobs, she wrote her gushed like a child. “I became a movie- salon in the Jordanian capital, Amman. best-seller in an internet cafe. She holic when I first got to Greece. Her barbaric killing was of a kind was snapped up by a New York literary “The friends I was staying with at the regularly visited on women in the Middle agent and an international publishing time said to me, ‘Have you seen the movie East and Jordan in particular. Women could house, and by the second half of 2003, There’s Something About Mary’?” And I be killed for losing their virginity through her book was a runaway success. She said, ‘That’s one of the dumbest movies rape or, in Dalia’s case, a few stolen kisses began appearing on network television I’ve ever seen. It didn’t make any sense.’ But in a pine forest. Anything that violated the in America and at literary festivals that was because, in Jordan, the American family’s honour could result in death. around the world, including Australia movies we saw lasted only 40 minutes. So Caption Intro to go here is nulla amet wisi. Faccum ver se facil ute core core tie Norma’s book, Forbidden Love, was and New Zealand. She had become the when they showed me Something About modiam, conulla feugait am, vullut aut diat alisis facili an attempt to try to avenge her friend’s literary diva of the year. Mary I watched it three times in a row and

4 | WW MARCH 2007 WW MARCH 2007 | 5 documentary about her dissident aunt, the This is Dr Amal al- anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott. Sabbagh Caption Intro to go here is nulla Anna hoped the film would convince amet wisi. Faccum ver Norma to co-operate with her. It did. se facil ute core core For the next 18 months, the two worked tie modiam, conulla together – in America and Jordan – with Anna hoping not just to vindicate Norma, but also hoping to alert the world further to the horrors of honour killing. Over time, she began to seriously doubt Norma’s word. In August 2004, The Sydney Morning Herald had revealed that Norma’s worst crime had been, not the literary hoax, but the theft of US government bonds worth more than half a million dollars. They had belonged to Norma’s demented 89-year-old neighbour, Mary Baravikas, and she had stolen them from her safety deposit box, along with $42,500 in cash. She had also managed to have signed into her name Mary’s home. Later, it was alleged, she had used some of this money to have her breasts enhanced.

“I REALLY DO WISH I COULD SIT DOWN WITH YOU AND SHOW YOU EVERYTHING AND ONE DAY SOON I WILL. BUT FOR NOW … I MUST

from her. But she has managed to conceal documents and photos proving she had Predictably, Norma told Anna that it this double life from her publishers, her been in Jordan between 1973 and 2000. wasn’t her fault, that it was her mother-in- agent, lawyers in several continents, the She included in the fax the results of a law and husband, John Toliopoulos, who Australian Department of Immigration voluntary polygraph test which confirmed, had forced her at gunpoint to forge Mary’s and, until now, the public.” she said, that she had been telling the truth. signature. She said he had abused her There was more to come. Norma had fled (One of the questions asked: “Do you physically and emotionally for years. the US in 1999 with her Greek-American have reason to believe that your friend “I have a criminal record for attacking husband, John Toliopoulos, to avoid being Dalia’s death was an honour killing?”) her?” John Toliopoulos asked Anna questioned by the FBI and prosecuted for Norma also said she was suing Malcolm Broinowski when she put the accusations fraud. In 1998, she had been arrested for Knox for defamation – the suit has since to him in Brisbane. “Not of my awareness.” allegedly bashing her mother-in-law and been dropped – and insisted to me that (John Toliopoulos is believed to still be threatening to kill her. (The charges were Dalia had been a “very close friend” of living in Australia.) dropped only when her mother-in-law hers who really “did exist” and really had In Jordan, Norma finally admitted to failed to show up at the trial.) At the time been “killed by her father”. Anna that there was no friend called Dalia of Dalia’s so-called honour killing – when “I really do wish I could sit down with who had been stabbed by her father in Norma wrote she was living in Jordan – you,” she wrote, “and show you everything Amman in 1996. Norma, we need some she was working on various real estate and one day soon I will. But for now, unlike proof. We want a name. Where killed? transactions in the Chicago area. Malcolm Knox, I must first safeguard the How killed? When killed? Rather, it was a Further revelations continued to flow privacy and safety of others involved.” woman with a different name, who had been with the help of the two Jordanian women By this stage – polygraph or no polygraph shot by her brother while pregnant. The – Rana Husseini, a prominent journalist, – I didn’t believe a word she was saying. murder had taken place in 2001 and not in and Dr Amal al-Sabbagh, director of The Amman, but in another Jordanian city. Even Jordanian National Commission for hen Anna this would prove to be another false trail Women. The two had discovered 73 lies Broinowski, the Norma had laid. After 300 hours of footage, or exaggerations in the book, among them Australian film- Anna could no longer separate fact from that the unisex salon – which Norma and maker, first read fiction. She was utterly exhausted. Dalia had supposedly worked in during about Norma in “I don’t know that I am sane even the early to mid-1990s – could never have July 2004, her now,” she says wearily. “The reason I was existed by law, nor could it be remembered firstW reaction was to assume that she immediately a believer in Norma is that I by any hairdresser in the capital. had been seriously maligned. had all of the white noise of the media in Within 48 hours of Malcolm Knox’s “I had this feminist line running in my my head – ‘She’s evil, she’s manipulative, revelations, Norma was on a flight to New head,” she tells The Weekly now, “that this she’s a con woman’ – and she did it York, leaving behind her young children in was a typical witch-hunt … with mostly male brilliantly [con us]. the care of neighbour and friend Rachel journalists out to make her look evil. That’s “When I met her, she opened the door Richardson. By the end of the week, her why I thought I would make this film.” and she was the antithesis of anything I’d book had been removed from the shelves. In May 2005, she paid for Norma to fly to ever expected. She was vulnerable. She On August 8, 2004, I received a five- San Francisco from an unknown destination was self-deprecating. She was gentle. She page fax from Norma in the US informing in the US, principally to attend the premiere was compassionate. She was generous. me that her solicitors were holding of her latest film, Helen’s War – a She was utterly sweet and slightly 

6 | WW MARCH 2007 WW MARCH 2007 | 7 flourishes with the pen is a description of slightly embarrassed half-laugh of hers her losing her virginity at the age of 36 and, absurd though this might sound, I’m to a handsome Greek. tempted to believe her all over again. ■ Anna Broinowski says Norma is now studying to become a human rights lawyer. Anna Broinowski’s documentary, Forbidden She says that despite everything, despite the Lie$, premieres on February 25 at the Adelaide lies and deception, she can’t help loving her. Film Festival and is due for national release WAY.” “I adore Norma because she’s one of the most by Palace Films later this year. charismatic women I’ve ever met and because her audacity knows no bounds. She is the modern equivalent of Machiavelli.” I decide to call Norma myself. I want to know what motivated her to bear such false witness to so many. Was it really speaks to Norma about the issue of honour killings, or was it the scandal. FIRST SAFEGUARD THE fame and fortune she was after? Had PRIVACY AND SAFETY she calculated the whole thing from the beginning or was she improvising on OF OTHERS INVOLVED.” the run? And did she feel any remorse? “Of course, I feel remorse,” she replies Caption Intro to go here is nulla amet wisi. Faccum ver se facil ute core core tie modiam, conulla feugait am, vullut aut diat alisis facili when I reach her at home early one morning,

“OF COURSE, I FEEL REMORSE. I’VE ALWAYS SAID I THOUGHT I WAS DOING SOMETHING FOR THE RIGHT REASON, BUT I DID IT THE WRONG

frail. And beautiful. And I looked at her neighbourhood that Malcolm Knox door- Australian time. “I’ve always said I thought and just wanted to hug her. I just thought, knocked back in July 2004. Asma agreed I was doing something for the right reason, ‘Oh, you poor wounded creature.’ to speak to Anna, but not for the film. but I did it the wrong way.” “I immediately felt like I had to be “She talked with some pride and humour,” What about the money you stole from some kind of saviour to her. And then, Anna says now, “about the way Norma [as Mary Bavarikas? “I didn’t do anything with of course, I film her for a year-and-a-half a young girl] had a little bird that she loved Mary Bavarikas. It was John [Toliopoulos]. and she cons us, too. And I don’t mind and how Norma would leave bird seed for If I did do something, the federal government that. I don’t feel angry or betrayed or hurt it on all the window ledges. And her mother, would have taken me into custody.” because she gave us an amazing story. who was working as a nurse, said to her one As for the money owed to Random “I’m just annoyed on her behalf and on day: ‘If that bird seed is still there when I House, Norma insists it was $50,000, not behalf of the cause that she didn’t prove come home, I’m going to kill it’. And the $300,000, and she’s paid it back. (Random Dalia existed because we would have bird seed was still there when she got home House has refused to confirm or deny the really helped the issue of honour crimes … and the mother sort of laughed at me and amount and whether it’s been repaid. “We and her campaign, if she’d done that.” said, ‘So I went like this’, and she snapped haven’t commented on anything to do with Sally Regan, Anna’s producer, believes the bird’s neck in front of Norma.” Norma the Norma Khouri case before and we’re not Dalia was never going to be found because was seven years old at the time. going to start now,” Karen Reid, head of she existed only inside the silhouetted publicity for the company’s international corridors of Norma Khouri’s mind. orma Khouri is back in book division, told The Weekly.) “I think Dalia is part of Norma,” she Chicago, living in the Similarly, with Rachel Richardson, says. “I think she is the inner, wounded same working-class Norma says now she never owed her child, although I can’t prove that in any district she was in before $15,000. “We are still going over what way, shape or form.” she fled the country she says I owe her, but it’s absolutely not Perhaps not, yet there is good reason to eight years ago. Her $15,000. And if you want to talk about me posit such a theory. Norma told Anna that Ntwo children are reunited with her, having bearing false witness, politicians do that from the age of four, her father, Majid been put on a plane by a private investigator all the time and the Jordanian government Bagain, had sexually abused her and that in November 2004. has been doing it for 200 years. this “sexual perversity” had continued for By all accounts, neither Norma nor the “Look, I did lie, but I lied for a reason. It 14 years. It only stopped when she filed children have seen John Toliopoulos since wasn’t fame and fortune I was after, not at charges against him and he was arrested. they left Australia. According to Anna, all. It was about the issue [of honour killings]. Another lie? Who can say for sure? Norma still owes Rachel Richardson, And I apologise to you for lying. I justified According to Anna, Norma’s father pleaded her former neighbour on Queensland’s it in my head as the ends justifying the means. guilty to the charges, but claimed he was Bribie Island, $15,000, and her Australian I hated lying to anyone about anything.” doing so only to spare Norma the shame publishers Random House, as much as After 10 minutes of frosty conversation, and embarrassment of a drawn-out court $300,000 for the advance on the now- I thank Norma for her time and for her case. He accused Norma’s mother of cancelled sequel to Forbidden Love. apology. I then hear myself wishing her putting up Norma to the charges because A first draft of the book, entitled Matter well in whatever she chooses to do next in of their faltering marriage. of Honour, is said to have been a true account her life. “Thank you,” she says finally. “If Anna Broinowski met Norma’s mother, of Norma’s freedom in the West, following you are ever in Chicago, drop by.” Asma Bagain, in the same Chicago her escape from Jordan. Among her And then she laughs that coquettish,

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