The Assassination of Light at the River's Flow

As a preface I would like to say that this story is tied with The Clan of the Cave Bear as most disturbing thing I've ever read.  By reading the first section the reader gets a view about how perfect and beautiful and sheltered her school is.  At the end of this section we get an interesting sentence about mixed feelings and what seems to be a sense of dread or anxiety.  At the beginning of the second section her supervisor tells her to go home right away because her father needs her urgently.  Being a naive superstitious girl she assumes the worst and thinks her Dad is dying or sick.  All through her flight home she prays to Allah and worries about her father only to be mortified when she finds out she was lied to and her father is in perfect condition and picked her from the airport.  When she gets home she finds everything silent and is quite confused and finally at dinner she asks what is going on.  Her mother tells her about they have arranged her marriage to a certain Fahid.  After hearing this, Raha throws a tantrum and argues with her mother about how she will never marry that rich old and fat Fahid.  By Saudi law she must marry or be killed (similar to Midsummer Night's Dream) so she chooses her own fate which is to not marry.  What happens next is what makes this story so disturbing.  Being furious and mortified at being disgraced like this, Raha's mother comes into her room(where she retreated) with a large stick and proceeds to beat her and rip her hair( which is as much as I'll describe in order to prevent myself from becoming sick).  In the U.S. forced marriage is illegal and anyone can marry anyone (depending on the laws of the state you live in).  What follows is simply punishment for disgracing her families name.  In the U.S. this would be classified as child abuse and assault and her mother could be arrested.(And I would as far as accusing her of violating human rights)  This is just one more reason why our western culture is mostly incompatible with Islamic and traditional beliefs.  While this story is fictional it is based on realistic facts and serves to expose some of the horrible things that happen in our world.