The following day, guards snatched Soraya and took her to a remote encampment where she was given a blood test (to ensure she was disease-free) and dressed in lingerie. A failed rape attempt ensued. Shortly after, Gaddafi assaulted her so badly that she needed medical treatment.
For the next five years, she was confined to a small room in the basement of the Tripoli base.
Given porn to ‘learn from' and ordered to consume alcohol and drugs, Soraya was raped and beaten almost daily. She witnessed Gaddafi rape many others, boys and men included.
The book reveals another story of a women who was raped, fell pregnant and had the baby in secret.
‘If she'd had the child in a hospital she'd have been arrested for having sex outside marriage,' says Cojean.
The baby was adopted and the woman married a rebel soldier willing to ‘salvage' her honour. Despite this, her brothers found her and stabbed her. ‘There was no inquiry, no one would talk about it,' says Cojean.
