Victoria Brittain 
Shadow Lives 
The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror

Shadow Lives reveals the unseen side of the ‘9/11 wars’: their impact on the wives and families of men incarcerated in Guantanamo, or in prison or under house arrest in Britain and the US. Victoria Brittain shows how these families have been made socially invisible and a convenient scapegoat for the state in order to exercise arbitrary powers under the cover of the ‘War on Terror’.



A disturbing expose of the perilous state of freedom and democracy in our society, the book reveals how a culture of intolerance and cruelty has left individuals at the mercy of the security services’ unverifiable accusations and punitive punishments.



Both a j’accuse and a testament to the strength and humanity of the families, Shadow Lives shows the methods of incarceration and social control being used by the British state and gives a voice to the families whose lives have been turned upside down. In doing so it raises urgent questions about civil liberties which no one can afford to ignore.

Table of Content

Acknowledgements

Foreword by John Berger

Introduction

1. From Palestine to Guantanamo

2. From Medina to Guantanamo

3. From Palestine and Africa to house arrest in London

4. From Jordan to Belmarsh prison

5. From Egypt to Long Lartin prison

6. The South London families

7. Daughters and Sisters

8. Families surviving the war on terror

Afterword by Marina Warner

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Marina Warner is an award-winning writer of fiction, criticism and history; her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of art, myths, symbols, and fairytales. She contributed an introduction to Memoirs of an Early Arab Feminist (Pluto, 2013) and the afterword to Shadow Lives (Pluto, 2013).