Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson
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Book Reviews of Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Book Review: Unbelievable story
Summary: 2 Stars
Just read the book. One of my friends (non-muslim) sent it to me. She wanted to know if it's all true. Well, here is my answer, i cannot believe this story was told by a real person, it is more likely that the author during 10 year in Saudi Arabia was collecting her own diary of gossips and prejudices. The author seems to collect everything bad about the country to put it in one book and tells it was told by Saudi, so nobody would say anything bad about her. Sultana seemed to be rebellious only on words but when she had a chance actually to do something she didn't go further than telling her husband.
The recitations of Quran are taken out of context or/and incomplete. Very often was used phrase like "most of muslims" implying that all muslims are like Saudi people. Just for the record everything happening in the book is condemned in Islam. For example, a man cannot take second wife without permission of first wife; Veil (burka, paranja) is not a compulsory; a bride has to approve a man she is marrying and only with here permission the marriage is possible; not mentioning rape, murder, beatings etc. Somebody might say that alright the book is about Saudi Arabia, which is true, but so many times you could read phrases like "most of muslims...", "we muslims...", "in islam...", and stuff like that, not "we Saudi...", "most of saudi...". This kind of parallel makes you think that all muslim men are like men in Saudi Arabia. Plus everything that was mentioned there (rape, for example) is happening all over the world, hypocrites are everywhere. So the whole book smells islamophobia.
Overall it is not different from other romantic novels, where main heroine is beautiful, rebellious, and full of dreams.
Thank you for reading.
Book Review: A life of misery - but is it true?
Summary: 2 Stars
The author relates the story of Sultana, a Princess of Saudi Arabia, from childhood to adulthood. We see Sultana's life of unimaginable luxury with palaces, servants, and jewels but, alas, being a female she is a prisoner in her home, subject to the iron will of her father and brother.
This is a good story, but I took it as a fictional story. I never once believed that Sultana was real and that she told these stories. I know the cruelties described in the book exist, but I think "Sultana" is a combination of many nameless Saudi women. Had the author not tried to present this as a memoir but just factually reported the officially-sanctioned abominations that women endure there, I would have liked it better. She tried to manipulate me into feeling pity for the poor little rich girl with tedious and amateurish fiction. None of it rang true.
The author lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years; I would have rather read an account of her experiences than this phony-sounding autobiography. It's right to expose these injustices but the truth is enough; there's no need to embellish it with trumped-up characters.
For a moving and much better-written story of women behind the veil, I recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Book Review: A very good read
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this book when I was 16, and I loved it. It is a work of non-fiction, and based on a true story of a Saudi Arabian princess and her family. She opens up about the injustices the women of Saudi suffer (sexism, FGM, favoritism, not having a say in one's marriage, how society turns a blind eye to abusive husbands, and how she supports a woman's right to freedom.) It is an empowering read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
It also has 2 sequels, "Daughters of Arabia" and "Desert Royal" which are equally stirring and totally worth the buy if you like "Princess". The sequels are tough to find at a library, though.
Book Review: God bless you, Jean P. Sasson.
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book without regard to ethnicity or political belief. I read it as a woman -- as a human being who suffered at the thought of what other women are enduring in the name of "religion" or "culture."
There is no explanation possible to make this palatable to anyone with a conscience. To let it pass without mention is an abomination, akin to denying the Holocaust. There is no justification possible in the eyes of God.
To the perpetrators of this inhumanity to women, I can only promise you that God is watching. Any other comment on these perpetrators is superfluous.
Book Review: No... I don't think so...
Summary: 1 Stars
I read this when I was high school and was shocked and appalled at how those poor Middle Eastern women live. Now grown, I have Middle Eastern female friends who laugh their head off at this book. Perhaps some of the incidents that are related happened, but I highly doubt they happened to the same person. It's like if someone from Saudi Arabia came here and wrote a book, "Senator's Daughter" or something. The girl was sexually abused starting at age 3, starved by her mother so she wouldn't get fat, pressured into sexually servicing the football team. The father has affairs with both women and men, is a pedophile, and likes to torture cats. The mother is a beaten-down woman who undergoes dozens of plastic surgery procedures and ends up locked in an insane asylum. Have these incidents, separately, happened to American females? Yes. Are they representative of American women, or senator's daughters? Nope. I suspect Jean Sasson did something similar, and it completely destroys any argument she was trying to make! A fun read, but don't take it as gospel.