I had a wonderful month-long vacation in Dubai for the Holidays. I was impressed with Dubai’s stunningly modern cityscape and infrastructure and the cosmopolitan lifestyle that has made Dubai a true melting pot of the Middle East.
Because of this, I saw a country of contradictions. Where else can one see skimpily clad women alongside heavily veiled ones?
This juxtaposition had me intrigued. I have often wondered then how veiled women or those who have to wear abaayas feel or think about those who never wear them.
So, I just had to buy this book which narrates the true-to-life story of a Saudi princess—a fascinating perspective as it comes from a an Arab woman of note.
Author : Jean Sasson
First Release : September 1992
Publisher (this edition) : Bantam Books (1993)
No. of pages : 303
This is the true story of Princess Sultana (fictitious name) of the royal house of Al Sa’ud, the current ruling clan of Saudi Arabia. She tells of her privileged life of mind-boggling riches and of her real life as a woman pinioned by cultural fetters of gender prejudice.
Princess Sultana is a feminist, a woman who feels deeply about the indignity and the precarious situation of women in Saudi Arabia whose laws and fanatic customs demean, denigrate, and threaten their very lives. In the milieu of extreme patriarchy where severe punishment is meted for breaking social and religious laws, she is a rare voice, a courageous one, as she has risked her life to tell her story, anonymously, through the author, Jean Sasson.
She recounts her life—how it is like to grow up as a Saudi princess, what incidents she had witnessed and heard of— grave injustices, appalling torture and punishment done to women, some of whose only sins were falling in love with a non-Muslim or being unfortunate enough to have been raped.
If I was hoping to find some answer to my question on how veiled women feel about thier abaayas, I did get her opinion. Of course, this is only one opinion. There should be several, supporting or opposing ones. I’d love to hear about opposing ones.
Princess Sultana narrates that at the first moments of the first veiling were exciting. Veiling signifies a child’s transition to womanhood and is practiced as soon as the child reaches menarche.
“For a moment, I felt myself a thing of beauty, a work so lovely that I must be covered to protect men from their uncontrollable desires.”– p.111
But in the next instant, she envies the freedom of those only partially veiled. (She has to wear a full veil covering her entire face. I’ve seen women veiled this way in Dubai and frankly, the sight of a heavily veiled woman, who looks like a walking death shroud, did creep me out a bit).
“The novelty of wearing the veil and abaaya was fleeting, though. When we walked out…I gasped for breath and sucked furiously through the sheer black fabric. The air tasted stale and dry as it filtered through the gauzy cloth. I had purchased the sheerest veil available, and yet I was seeing life through a thick screen. How could one woman see through veils made of thicker fabric? … my heart plunged to my stomach when I realized that, from that moment, outside my own home I would not experience life as it really is in all its colour…”
“I stumbled over several children of a bedouin woman, and looked in envy at the freedom of the veil. Bedouin women wear veils that fell across their noses, leaving their eyes free to examine their surroundings. Oh how I wished to be a bedouin! I would cover my face gladly if I could only leave my eyes free to see the inifinite changes of life around me.” — p. 111
Perhaps then, veiled women do feel a certain envy toward those who never have to wear them. The object of envy would be freedom—freedom to express one’s individuality through their own choices of make-up and fashion; freedom from restrictive clothing; freedom to revel and have confidence in one’s own body. These are little freedoms which most women take for granted. I have sensed sometimes these women’s longing to have the social confidence Western and most Asian women have, an inherited assurance owing to totally different cultural views.
However, I am straying from the subject —which is a review of this book.
Princess is indeed all of these — shocking, fascinating, heart-breaking, outrageous, thought-provoking, unbelievable. It is mind-boggling to think how ideas and acts, presumed to be medieval, be alive and and accepted in this day and age — the age of information. The book is simply written, far from being a literary work of note in terms of writing style; but Sasson does convey the story coherently and sequentially well.
For Filipinos, it would be of interest to know that Princess Sultana makes a lot of references to our “kabayans”, overseas workers who form a significant part of the labor force in Saudi Arabia.
This book is so interesting that it may spur one to read Jean Sasson’s other novels, all of which deal with women in the Arab world.
My Mark : Outstanding
January 15, 2009 at 7:37 am
a westerners view in a muslim world as a muslim wearing ‘burqa’is describen in ‘not without my daughter’ but then i thought it was a lill prejudiced. But this sure does speak the truth i guess!
January 31, 2009 at 10:00 pm
I stumbled upon this review after searching the name of this book which I had read when I had been younger. I find the book, and your review at that, to be extremely biast and one sided. Just because one “veiled woman” or Saudi woman feels this way, does not mean that all Muslim women feel oppressed.
And before you say “It is mind-boggling to think how ideas and acts, presumed to be medieval, be alive and and accepted in this day and age — the age of information” please remember that you are an outsider who is applying your own ‘western’ ideas of culture and religion to a religion which is not yours. And your comment about medieval sickens and disgusts me and also offends me. Muslim women were given the right to divorce and inherit in the 10th century, many centuries before women in the West were recognized as people. So please stop making the west superior because the beliefs of practices that you believe to be ‘medieval’.
As a practicing and Hijab wearing young woman, I find this book to be completely one sided and western in its appraoch. Notice that the author is not the “princess” but is instead written by a white woman who was told the story through Sultana.
Although some women face these issues, I beg of you not to comdemn the whole religion and people to the same subjucations. As a Muslim woman, I love wearing the hijab because my body is not a sex object but instead is a body that houses ideas and thoughts and intelligent feelings and is not regarded for what it wears and how much skin it shows.
I do understand that you know that this is the only opinion and thus is not the only opinion. Consider how the media informs your opinion of this book and of Muslim women.
I read this book a couple of years ago, when I was 15 but as I have grown older and have chosen to wear the hijab myself, I realise how western this book is, it is manifested in such a way to give the West the perspective on Muslim women what they desire: An “insider” view on how oppressed Muslim women are and how barbaric Islam is.
February 1, 2009 at 12:40 pm
It has not been my intention to cause offense regarding the wearing of the veil or hijab. I have actually posed a question in my review about how women felt about their abaayas or veils. I have mentioned that the opinion in the book was only one opinion and that I would like to hear others, especially opposing ones so that I am actually glad I got one from you.
My mistake it seems was to surmise afterwards that women who are required to wear the hijab or veil feel forced, restricted, and deprived of the freedom to wear what they want. My surmise, I admit, must have been colored by books that probably pander to Western ideals and also from personal observation of women going about simple activities like eating for instance, where from my standpoint, seems very difficult with a veil on. For this, you have chastised me and I do apologize most profusely to you and to others of the same opinion.
However, when I wrote : “ It is mind-boggling to think how ideas and acts, presumed to be medieval, be alive and and accepted in this day and age — the age of information.”, it was in reference to the appalling punishments stated in this book (and in other similar non-fiction works of the same ilk) which are still legal under Saudi Arabia’s laws. I would like to know how being imprisoned in a pitch black room, doomed to die very slowly from sensory deprivation, be a humane and justified punishment for a Muslim woman who had erred by falling in love with an American man? How can such an error deserve such extreme, cruel punishment—-death and in such manner? I would understand it more if this were done to punish a really horrible criminal like perhaps a serial killer who tortures and eats children. I don’t think this is even acceptable punishment for any conventional crime (many would agree) and belongs to the past just as much as crucifixion does.
Take another : A young girl who becomes pregnant out of wedlock was sentenced to be stoned to death. By her account, she was raped. Let us say she was a liar. Still, does this merit death and by such means? And why don’t the men involved get such a penalties as well?
For this, I cannot apologize because from whatever standpoint, these punishments are totally extreme.
Even the Princess in the story chooses to remain anonymous for fear of her life. Why does a woman have to fear death for simply writing what she perceives to be the truth about her life?
As an Asian, I can say that our culture — Filipino, Korean, Japanese, etc.— is also very conventional and we do frown on the liberal attitudes and values of Westerners. But even we cannot conceive of legalizing such horrific punishments today for what we shall term as love crimes. That is why I say it is mind-boggling how such treatments can and are legally applied today in Saudi Arabia. Even China has outlawed their old practice of drowning female babies, although this is still being done in remote areas. But my point here is it is not legal anymore.
What I hope is that all these accounts are super exaggerated, aren’t true or isolated cases done illegally. If this were the case, please point me out to books penned by Arab women refuting this seemingly Western horror stories of their culture, so that I can really acknowledge what you feel is my biased judgement.
February 5, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Your site displays incorrectly in Explorer, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words =)
March 3, 2009 at 9:56 am
I agree completely with what Johanna is saying–in her review and in her reply to you. I haven’t read the book yet, but because of the review, I definitely will next week.
I am neither an arab nor a muslim, but I have several close friends who are. Therefore, I have witnessed some of the difficulties these women have. They have also confessed to me some of the hardships they or someone they know,have been thru.
March 17, 2009 at 8:52 am
This is in reply to Joanna’s opinion of what she considered to be medieval , to begin my writing i would just point out some facts regarding women’s liberality in Islam ” Muslim women were given the right to divorce and inherit in the 10th century, many centuries before women in the West were recognized as people ” you can look for yourself in any religion or in any civilization if that religion or that civilization has given a right of inheritance to a female and you would come to a conclusion that no religion has given a right not even any civilization untill the beginning of 19th or 20th century from this the only inference we can infer is the Islam protects womenfolk , it gives equal rights to womenfolk even 1400 years ago when women were just traded like any other commodity , Now coming to the strict punishment imposed for sex outside marriages and other profanities again you have to look into those advanced country who consider themselves of having reached the pinnacle of civilization , every 3 minutes women are raped , sexually assulted or atleast encounters the sexual perpetrators .. this is not somewhere in the remote area im talking about, This is what hppens in America . While talking about the book to be honest i loved that book very much and also i felt sad for those poor lives , confining someone to the dark room is not something islam approves of and punishing someone who has been accused of having sex outside the marriage without enough proof is considered a heinous crime and those who slander women are cursed by God Almighty and they will be punished by God Almighty , Also when it comes to wearing hijab if you see whats happening around the world you will know the truth ,Those newly convert muslims(or i should say revert) wear hijab and they wear hijab out of their own interest and they feel that wearing hijabs doesnot confine them but infact it gives them freedom , it gives them honour and they will not be considered as a sex symbol anymore they will be respected as a woman who would be held in esteem not in contemp and the age as you call it “The information age” you are just a click away from the world news so all you have to do is just search for new muslim convert stories and you will know what im talking about so Islam doesnot subjugate woman islam only liberate woman .
Now coming back to those poor women who have no voice and suffred unjustly my heart goes out for them . All i want to say finally is that i loved the book “The Princess” Very much somuch so it made me to tears but Some of the punishments are disapproved by Islam especially punishing someone without proof . Islam considers that ” No one is guilt unless his guilt is proven” where as west considers “No one is innocent unless his innocence is proven”