⇒ PDF Princess True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Jean P Sasson 9780553405705 Books

Princess True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Jean P Sasson 9780553405705 Books

Download As PDF : Princess True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Jean P Sasson 9780553405705 Books

Princess True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Jean P Sasson 9780553405705 Books

Jean Sasson’s book Princess on the life events of a Saudi princess gives great insights on the lives of Saudi women in the 90s. To a large extent, the book holds true to the lives of Saudi women at the time such as a lack of proper education, forced marriages, and honor killings. I haven’t lived through that time, but I can easily imagine such discrimination against women.
Unfortunately, injustice and mistreatment still inflicts the women of Saudi Arabia in our day. Princess Sultana’s childhood brought back to me memories of my own childhood when my father preferred my brothers to us (his daughters) by giving them more freedom, love, toys and sometimes more food. To this day, generally speaking, men are granted full freedom and control over their lives while women are restricted to the home. Their way out of the house can only be achieved either through lucky marriage or strenuous education and personal strength coupled with ample leniency from their male guardians.
Education, however, helped change Saudi men’s views on women. A growing number of Saudi fathers nowadays carry so much pride in being named after their first born daughter, refuse to let their daughters undergo FGM, insist on their daughters education, brag about sending their daughters abroad to finish their degrees, and strive to find the best husbands for their daughters.
It is true that education has made tremendous positive changes to the lives of women in my country, but unfortunately little has been achieved legally for women. A man can still decide whether or not his daughters go to school, work or marry the men of their own choosing. The law does not protect women in many cases and the happiness of women here is down to the level of goodness of their male guardians.
The narrator, nonetheless, fails sometimes to give a true picture of Saudi Arabia. Her stories appear to be either true to her region or class and carries less truth for other regions, classes or tribes. For example, labeling all Saudis as rich, claiming that alcohol has easy access to a Saudi home, or considering the announcement of engagement and weddings extremely private matters. Her narration at other times can only be considered authentic for her time, for the book cites so many almost dead practices such as women and men of no relations to one anther not being allowed in the same car, marrying young girls to old men, protecting babies from evil eye by pinning blue beads to their clothing, or celebrating the virginity of a new wife.
As I read the book, I couldn’t help stop crying with every chapter. Some of the princess’s reflections reminded of a long gone childhood and her anger has reawaken suppressed feelings inside me. I felt that the years of submissiveness and helplessness have washed away my anger and ability to see the injustices of our situation. The first few chapters made me boil with anger, but as I kept reading and reflecting on our lives, my feelings changed to optimism. I am extremely grateful to the women who lived before me. Through their struggle, they helped pave the way for the women of my generation. I know too that women of future generations will reap the benefits of my generation’s struggle.


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Princess True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Jean P Sasson 9780553405705 Books Reviews

Princess is the true story of one of the many Saudi Arabian princesses growing up in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It is a collection of stories, many of which illustrate the problems with being female in a male dominated society. It’s an interesting glimpse into a few years in the life of mostly wealthy Saudis. I recommend reading it.
This is about the life in Saudi Arabia of one (of many) family princesses of the House of Saud (See Wiki) , the moderns originating from Ibn Saud (1876-1953). Most of the oil wealth goes to the Royal Family. The family runs the country using the Islamic schism of Wahabism and Sharia Law. This story is life with Saudi males. Female births and deaths and their burials are not recorded in S.A. today. Families can put their female children to death and the S.A. government is never notified. Females are not allowed to move around outside their house without written permission. This allows foreign housekeepers to be held and treated as virtual slaves during their contract of employment, Beheading still awaits serious criminals in Deera square, known as Justice Square or Chop Chop Square in Riyadh. A serious crime is converting away from Islam. Such are the many tales told by the Princess to Jean Sasson. This lifestyle is what our oil money is used to support and is very important to learn about before it reaches N.A. Time to seriously employ Solar and Wind Technologies.
This book was well written and I found I wanted to read the entire trilogy as the books were insightful into the plight of women in the Muslim culture, insight into how excessive wealth can affect behavior and abuse by Muslims outside of their own culture as well. It deserves 4-stars but readers will find it disturbing on how females are valued and treated in the Muslim culture and there are many examples in which the abuse is truly criminal. This continues to haunt me and I believe it is very important that the world know and understand the plight of women in many of the Muslim cultures. Both the individual within Saudi Arabia and Jean Sasson put their lives at risk to inform the world as to the plight of women in the Muslim culture which is so courageous. This abuse as it is so foreign to any culture that I have experienced and I cannot fathom that slavery, devaluation and abuse of females still exists in this century. It is truly medieval and needs to be addressed by the world now, not later.
Seriously couldn't out this book down. To be fair, it is a very easy read, big font and 240-ish pages, which go by very fast. It is harrowing though, dont read if you expect to be titillated, you will just be horrified. But in an eye opening way.

At first I wasn't sure if this was real or not. But after finishing it, I'm certain it is. I heard objections that it was too "sensational", which i find to be very disconcerting. If you find it hard to bevie that women are being treated like this, then you really need to get out more.
This is so well written, so revealing and so believable that I don't even care how much is nonfiction. For those who have difficulty believing it, you may need to get out more - or just read more. Seriously! I taught Muslims in the US and went to graduate school with Kuwaiti men and women. I have friends who were nurses in Saudi Arabia. My husband spent time in Bahrain awaiting the start of the second Iraqi war before going in and nothing here seems unbelievable to us. In fact, it's not even surprising.
I know something of the world, but I had no idea....zero idea....of the extent of subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia as described in this book. I kept putting it down, not because I didn't like it, but because the misogynistic society described within its pages was so overwhelming. Why do the men of the middle east have to dominate women to this extent? There is great evil in this kind of cruelty towards the female gender. They are afraid of women. Why? I don't know whether to recommend this book or not. It was interesting, but shocking and upsetting. I came away from it angry, very angry.
Jean Sasson’s book Princess on the life events of a Saudi princess gives great insights on the lives of Saudi women in the 90s. To a large extent, the book holds true to the lives of Saudi women at the time such as a lack of proper education, forced marriages, and honor killings. I haven’t lived through that time, but I can easily imagine such discrimination against women.
Unfortunately, injustice and mistreatment still inflicts the women of Saudi Arabia in our day. Princess Sultana’s childhood brought back to me memories of my own childhood when my father preferred my brothers to us (his daughters) by giving them more freedom, love, toys and sometimes more food. To this day, generally speaking, men are granted full freedom and control over their lives while women are restricted to the home. Their way out of the house can only be achieved either through lucky marriage or strenuous education and personal strength coupled with ample leniency from their male guardians.
Education, however, helped change Saudi men’s views on women. A growing number of Saudi fathers nowadays carry so much pride in being named after their first born daughter, refuse to let their daughters undergo FGM, insist on their daughters education, brag about sending their daughters abroad to finish their degrees, and strive to find the best husbands for their daughters.
It is true that education has made tremendous positive changes to the lives of women in my country, but unfortunately little has been achieved legally for women. A man can still decide whether or not his daughters go to school, work or marry the men of their own choosing. The law does not protect women in many cases and the happiness of women here is down to the level of goodness of their male guardians.
The narrator, nonetheless, fails sometimes to give a true picture of Saudi Arabia. Her stories appear to be either true to her region or class and carries less truth for other regions, classes or tribes. For example, labeling all Saudis as rich, claiming that alcohol has easy access to a Saudi home, or considering the announcement of engagement and weddings extremely private matters. Her narration at other times can only be considered authentic for her time, for the book cites so many almost dead practices such as women and men of no relations to one anther not being allowed in the same car, marrying young girls to old men, protecting babies from evil eye by pinning blue beads to their clothing, or celebrating the virginity of a new wife.
As I read the book, I couldn’t help stop crying with every chapter. Some of the princess’s reflections reminded of a long gone childhood and her anger has reawaken suppressed feelings inside me. I felt that the years of submissiveness and helplessness have washed away my anger and ability to see the injustices of our situation. The first few chapters made me boil with anger, but as I kept reading and reflecting on our lives, my feelings changed to optimism. I am extremely grateful to the women who lived before me. Through their struggle, they helped pave the way for the women of my generation. I know too that women of future generations will reap the benefits of my generation’s struggle.