Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
~ 164 ~
from doing so. Every day, she was swamped by fan
mail, so that it became impossible even to read a
selection of the letters which poured in.
Despite all this ostensible glamour, she was so
unsatisfied from within that just the fact of being a
celebrity became a burden to her. One night, worn
out by her own fame, Brigitte swallowed an
overdose of tranquillizers. Even at that crucial
moment, when her life hung in the balance,
photographers forced the ambulance which was
rushing her to the hospital to stop halfway so that
they could take pictures of her. BB (as she was
known in the film world) was once reported as
saying that she never really felt at ease in front of
the camera.
At the age of 39, after making 48 films, she
suddenly ended her career, refusing even to accept
the most enticing offers from Hollywood. She sold
her Rolls Royce and went to live alone in her house
on the Riviera “to cease to be considered a beautiful
object and become a human being like any other.”
The truth is that to become a heroine in the outside
world and attain fame goes against the feminine
