This heartrending memoir unravels the most perilous period in Syria's modern history, a time when President Asad's notorious secret service agents, the Mukhabarat, hunted down and imprisoned anyone even remotely associated with political opposition. When a "wanted criminal" fled from the Mukhabarat's clutches, they were held hostage, like in the case of Heba Dabbagh.

Heba Dabbagh's story begins when Mukhabarat agents storm into her apartment and ask for "just five minutes" of her time. They drag her to a military interrogation unit where a long list of fabricated allegations awaits her. From there, Dabbagh takes us on a journey through the prisons of Syria and reveals the nightmares that come to life in the Mukhabarat interrogation and torture chambers. During her nine year imprisonment, Dabbagh shares cells and stories with members of the political opposition, communists, spies, children and even members of her own family.

In this candid chronicle, Dabbagh exposes the oppresion that thousands have lived but few dare to voice.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

No Longer Available

Edition: 1st Canadian ed.
Name (s): Dabbagh, Heba, 1959-
               Khatib, Bayan

Title (s): Just five minutes : nine years in the prisons of syria / Heba Dabbagh; translated by Bayan Khatib.

Publisher: Toronto: B. Khatib, c2007
Numbers: Canadiana: 20079005071
               ISBN: 0978172604
CLASSIFICATION: LC Call no.: DS98.5 D32 A3 2007 Dewey: 365/.45092 22
SUBJECTS: Dabbagh, Heba, 1959-
                Women political prisoners--Syria--Biography
                Political prisoners--Syria--Biography
                Syria--Politics and government--1971-2000