Ever since I read Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil many years ago, I became engrossed in books written by Jean Sasson and in particular, the Princess set.
Jean Sasson is an American writer whose work is focused on the life and struggles of women in the Middle East. I am fascinated by the exotic and take great joy in reading about life in Saudi Arabia through Jean Sasson’s Princess books; albeit quite often sad stories, they are real stories of women facing intense struggles and inequality.
As an author she has a way of captivating her audience to the extent where you feel like an observer of Princess Sultana’s (a pseudonym to protect her identity) extraordinary life. And this is what I love about the books. There are no pretentious words or complicated syntax, her work can be read effortlessly.
With real life characters the books are eye-opening, educating even. One can relish in the innocence of Princess Sultana’s attitude to luxury, the glittering jet set lifestyle of a real life princess who wears designer gowns, owns many jewels and lives in palaces. But sympathise and learn as she speaks of heart wrenching accounts of unthinkable acts of cruelty on children and the conflicting nature of Saudi Arabia’s political and religious constraints against women.
When you read these books you really feel like you have taken something away from them. The Sociology student in me sees so much more than a story. They motive me to help others. And inspire me to be the best version of me possible.
The Princess Trilogy is made up of four books following a real life Saudi Princess, Princess Sultana. The books are based on true accounts of Sultana, while the narrative is formed by Jean Sasson. They explore Sultana’s life as a child to her arranged but loving marriage, bringing up children as a royal in a society where women’s freedoms are questionable and her quest to help women and children worldwide. The prominent theme throughout is Sultana’s dream to give women and children a voice.
I highly recommend these books for you or for a friend as a gift.
Princess
Daughters of Arabia
Desert Royal
Princess – More Tears to Cry
An excerpt from Princess: More Tears To Cry.
I am a princess who can never be queen. This is because in my country only the men and the wind are completely free. Under the current circumstances, never will a woman be elevated to the highest rank in our Saudi monarchy…
My friends, here is what life is like for Saudi women in the twenty-first century:
-I live in a country where I know a woman who graduated at the top of her class and is a respected physician.
– I live in a country where I know of a young child whose mother was not allowed legal custody after a divorce, even though the child was only a baby. This baby girl was brutally raped to death by her father, a Saudi Muslim cleric.
– I live in a country where I know a woman who successfully manages her own business and who is creating havoc for her male competitors in similar businesses.
– I live in a country where a cleric has ruled that a ten-year-old girl who is sexually abused on a daily basis by her thirty-five-year-old husband must remain in that marriage. The clerics ruled that it is unfair to take the chance of marriage away from any young girl.
– I live in a country where most girls are being educated and those girls take their education very seriously.
– I live in a country where only 15 percent of the workforce is female, because most fathers and husbands still insist that a woman’s sole place is in the home, even if the woman is highly educated and wishes to work.
– I live in a country where women are still not allowed to drive an automobile.
– I live in a country where clerics ruled that a woman should be lashed for daring to drive her young son to school.
– I live in a country where women must still gain permission from a male guardian to work and to travel, where female rebellion can still cost a woman her life.
– I live in a country where a number of women defy the men who rule them, yet the men in their families have not called for the women’s deaths.
– I live in a country where most females obey their mother and father as to the selection of the man who will be their husband. Although it is said that women have the right to say no, few will do so, as they feel such disobedience will dishonor their parents.
– I live in a country where women can reach great heights in their careers and where many women live in happy marriages.
– I live in a country where many women live miserably and are confined to their homes, unable to make the simplest of personal decisions, such as the right to take their young children and leave their husbands, whether from personal unhappiness or brutal abuse.
– I live in a country where any man is free to emotionally abuse, beat, or even murder the women of his family without facing communal condemnation or legal penalty.
– I live in a country where most men and women frown upon such behaviour.
– I live in a country ruled by a king who came to maturity at a time when women’s feelings and rights never enjoyed consideration, but this king, King Abdullah, has made the cause of women a priority.