Princess by Jean Sasson

A shocking true story of life behind the veil, in a land where Kings stillrule, Arabian Princess Sultana, revealed her story through Jean Sasson. The author, Jean Sasson, spent over ten years living and working in Riyadh and was incensed at the inequality of women within the country, and the power that men hold, and it was during this time that she met Princess Sultana. The Princess, the youngest in a family of eleven surviving children, including only one boy, begged Sasson to write her biography, based on her diaries even from childhood. Think of a Saudi Arabian princess and what do you see…? Woman glittering with jewels, living a life of unbelievable luxury, she has gold, palaces, swimming-pools, servants, designer dresses galore. If this image is what you have in mind, then I can say one has big misconception. In reality despite of all these worldly luxuries they are prisoners in male dominant society. 

Women are seen as substance used for breeding with and sexual pleasure. In a family, sons are treasured, daughters are reviled, for the fear that they might 'sully the family’s name'. Since birth, women are taught to be obedient to men, and men are taught to be stuck up, arrogant pricks who abuse them. Sultana's grandfather was Abdul Aziz, whose descendents have ruled Saudi Arabia since the turn of the 20th century. Aziz amazingly married 300 women and produced fifty sons and eighty daughters; creating a powerful family who are at the centre of economic life in the Kingdom today.

The story follows the life of Sultana, from her childhood days till her marriage, of all the she has to go through as she dreams for a change in her world. Sultana is been portrayed as threat to her family name through her rebellious behaviour. Her main target is her brother Ali, who was barely punished for some of his own despicable actions, particularly towards women. She hates from the core of her heart and has revengeful attitude against him. Saudi women are essentially paired off into arranged marriages at very early ages. Soon after the puberty girls are forced to marry someone as much as five times her age, in order that she may produce sons for him.

Despite Sultana's mother having 16 children (five died), her husband still took another wife in his quest for sons. Sultana's mother was married at the age of 12 and the first five girls were not even allowed to be educated, although the younger five were. Sultana’s seventeenyear- old sister, Sara attempted suicide because she was forced to marry to a sadistic fifty-three-year-old man. Despite Sultana's feistiness and the stories she details in the book, she herself still had to bow to pressure for an arranged marriage to a cousin, Karim. More than the relationship this was business arrangement. Thankfully her own marriage, while having its issues is not as dramatic of that of her next youngest sister for example, female gender mutilation and husbands taking several wives are par for the course.

It is also amazing how almost unbelievably wealthy this family is, with most men taking four wives and even having four palaces per family unit, completely identical, down to every detail, in the case of Sultana's family, so that theydidn't have to travel with lots of luggage... The family go to great lengths for personal comfort, including accounts of buying up every first class seat to travel, and refitting the entire maternity ward in an opulent standard, before the birth of a first child. Yet for a country whose people have travelled so widely, it seems incomprehensible that this domination can still reign at
home. There are several accounts of brutality to women which seem completely unforgivable, including cruelty imposed on a woman by a man in marriage, yet the particular girl's seems to condone the behaviour.

Though theme of the novel is not new to us but somehow this book can be distinguished from other novel who deals with same issue. There is nothing to judge this book as good or bad book as the story is based on factual information. But I should say it is very nicely written. This book makes one understand the real situation of women in male dominated societies. I just could not stop myself from reading the sequel of Princess, Daughters of Arabia. I hope to come up with its review in the next issue.
                                                                                                                                                      Deepali Desai
                                                                                                                                                      BA (Journalism, Psychology, English)