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Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arab

PostPosted: March 28th, 2012, 1:31 am
by Memnoch26
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
by Jean Sasson

All the people that i know that read this book had one comment -- SCARY. Apparently, the story included the rape of non muslims in Saudi Arabia including Filipinas.
The book is indeed scary as woman in general , are considered 2nd class citizen for Muslims. Just imagine how out classed the non muslim women would be.

The story shows how glamorous the life of an arab royalty is and how terrible women are treated in their society. One the other hand, its an eye opener to the world of our Muslim neighbors.

Some of the interesting stuff told are:
1. Muslim women are literally sold to their husbands. They should be virgins otherwise they shall be returned to their family. Sultanas sister was given/sold to her fathers business partner who was as old as his father. The sister was in her teens. She literally got raped and traumatized.
2. Muslim women who disgraces their family (if returned or divorced by their husbands or talked with another man not his husband or not his family) must be punished for disgracing their family. Their was one story wherein the father decided to kill his daughter by his own hands with the whole family watching. In another story, the woman was imprisoned in a room in their own house until she died.
3. Women are not allowed to drive. They are discriminated as no need to go to school and study and have a career.
4. Non muslim women are considered as whores. Foreign women working as help in households can be made as sex slaves by their master and even their sons. And the mother even encourages this. Since single men are deprived of sex, the mother gives their house help to compensate. And a story was told about a Filipina caught in this job. Foreign women are also the target for physical abuse. They get beaten up anytime.


The book is really interesting as it is rich in culture. Dont get me wrong. I dont want to sound negative. There are a lot of nice thing to read about their culture but i just mentioned the shocking ones above.

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Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, her second book, chronicles the life of Sultana, a purported Saudi princess.It claims to be a true story, detailing gender inequalities experienced by Saudi Arabian women. The identity of Sultana (a pseudonym) is concealed to assure her safety. The book remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 13 weeks