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Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
by Jean P. Sasson
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Avon Books (1993-09-01)
ISBN: 0380719185
EAN: 9780380719181
Dewey Decimal #: 305.4209538
Mass Market Paperback: 283 pages
SKU: 20428
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Paperback. All pages clean and free of marks.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A Saudi woman discusses what life is like for women in her country, describing how women are sold into marriage to men five times their age, are treated as their husbands' slaves, and are often murdered for the slightest transgression. Reprint.
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Customer Reviews
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A life of misery - but is it true?
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-09-15
14 out of 15 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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A very good read
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-26
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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God bless you, Jean P. Sasson.
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-12
4 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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No... I don't think so...
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-07-07
10 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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Looking Back...
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-06-01
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I read Princess the first time many years ago and was very intriged by it. It also made me look into Islam and I can say today I am a Muslim. I read the book again recently and did not find it as good. What must be said is that a lot of horrible things that happened in that book were culture and *not* Islam. (I will also say that Saudi is not a good example of a Islamic country.)
Other than that issue I think it's a good read. Just don't read too much into it. If you really want to get a look into life in Saudi there are Saudi feminist bloggers on the net. That would give you a better view than this book.
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