An unidentified woman walks out of a Sydney bookstore by the Herald headline "Author's Hoax Exposed" (Photo courtesy: AP)

CAIRO, July 27 (IslamOnline.net) – A Jordanian-born author is being interrogated by Australia's Immigration Department for a false memoir that included hoax counts of wide-scale oppression and honor killings in the Muslim kingdom.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the Department of Immigration is investigating charges against Norma Khouri in accordance with the Migration Act, reported the Sydney Morning Herald Monday, July 26.

In her book "Forbidden Love", Norma narrates what is supposed to be her lifelong friendship with a girl named Dalia in Amman .

In their 20s, Khouri wrote, she and Dalia started a hairdressing salon together. Dalia met and fell in love with Michael, a Christian army officer.

When their affair was discovered, Dalia was murdered - stabbed 12 times - by her father.

Khouri told how she and Dalia were oppressed by patriarchal Jordanian laws, which protected Dalia's father from prosecution for the alleged murder.

Khouri, now 34, supposedly then fled Jordan to Athens , where she said she wrote her book in internet cafes.

She later went to Australia , where her publisher Random House, sponsored her for a temporary residence visa.

‘Fake Khouri’

However, Sydney Morning Herald said that after an 18-month investigation it had discovered that Khouri had spent most of her life in the United States , rather than Jordan .

"Norma Khouri is a fake, and so is Forbidden Love," the paper revealed in its Saturday edition.

Khouri's real name is Norma Majid Khouri and she only lived in Jordan until she was three years old.

She has a US passport and lived from 1973 until 2000 in Chicago . She is married with two children, 13 and 11, the Australian paper said.

The Herald discovered records of Chicago real estate transactions listing Norma and a man called John Toliopoulos as husband and wife.

Visiting the addresses this month, the paper found members of her family, neighbors and acquaintances who remembered Norma from her 27 years in Chicago , from age three to 30.

Her 64-year-old mother keeps dozens of photos of the daughter who disappeared in 2000 and has not spoken to her ever since.

"She has managed to conceal this double life from her publishers, her agent, lawyers in several continents, the Australian Department of Immigration and, until now, the public," said the Herald.

It went on: "Khouri's hoax will take its place in a long Australian tradition of literary fraud, from Ern Malley to Helen Darville-Demidenko. But no other fraudulent book has had such wide sales or impact, and in Darville's case the deception only involved her persona, not her book. Khouri has misled the world both on the page and in person."

If charges that her story was a lie were proven true, Khouri's residency in Australia could be threatened.

Withdrawn

The Australian publishers of Khouri's controversial book have withdrawn it from sale and advised booksellers to do the same.

Random House Australia said Monday the book would not be available for sale again until it had been assured by Ms Khouri that it was a true representation of her life and experiences.

"This action has been taken because the company is very concerned about allegations raised on the weekend by The Sydney Morning Herald which cast doubt on Ms Khouri's true identity and her story as told in Forbidden Love," the publishers said in a statement.

The book has been published in at least 15 countries. It has sold more than 200,000 copies in Australia alone.