Jean sasson princess pdf

But when her nephews are caught committing an unspeakable act against a year-old girl, Sasaon is galvanized into action. The terrible acts that she writes about happen all over the world, and in the U. If this book was true, I would give it a higher rating. After saseon knew that female members of her own family and close friends suffered unimaginable horrors, some were even killed by their male family members, and yet she did nothing to try and save them.

The author, in the telling of these true stories, describes how the beliefs and attitudes of both sexes are shaped and continue to sasxon shaped by a social culture dating back many centuries. We readers, however, are inspired by the glow of her interior life and her fierce challenge to injustice swsson she sees it.

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And where the remarkable events of Saudi history? They should have influenced the life of the princess for sure! It's a pity that those who have never been here will most likely believe it : And don't read it if you have to go to Saudi - you will be scared for nothing. Aug 07, A'ishah rated it did not like it Shelves: at-school. This book is pure fiction. I do not say that just because I am a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. I'm saying it because it is true.

My three main problems are: 1. For starters, how does someone just "traveling" to Saudi Arabia just happen to befriend a princess and extract the many details of her life in this book? She's a princess, not a woman on the street, who would still be much mor This book is pure fiction. She's a princess, not a woman on the street, who would still be much more private about intimate details of her life.

She conveniently has to rename the princess for "safety. How could these details be so vivid and how could someone within the royal family not know who it was? She could easily be prosecuted. The language used is archaic and unrealistic.

A lot of Westerners are of the opinion that Arabs speak like the characters in the "Arabian Nights. Conclusion:This book is fiction masquerading as an autobiography.

It reads like trash, and the main character is incredibly hard to sympathize with, as she is ungrateful and a spoiled feminist. Apr 06, Suzannah added it Shelves: biography , non-fiction. Years ago I read Bojidar Marinov's article "Civilisation and Self-Control" , which agreed with, and expanded upon, some things I'd already read on Islamic views of sexuality.

It's the kind of article that sums up some startling insights in a very concise way, and as a result I never felt I really understood it. Until I read this book. Princess , by Jean Sasson, purports to be the memoir of an anonymous woman from the Saudi royal family, passionate about changing the oppressed status of women in her Years ago I read Bojidar Marinov's article "Civilisation and Self-Control" , which agreed with, and expanded upon, some things I'd already read on Islamic views of sexuality.

Princess , by Jean Sasson, purports to be the memoir of an anonymous woman from the Saudi royal family, passionate about changing the oppressed status of women in her country.

First off, this book is actually terrifying - it nearly gave me nightmares. Once again, while reading the memoir of women in repressive Islamic regimes, I found myself thinking "Who needs dystopian fiction? By the end of the book, Princess Sultana reflects sadly that there is not a single man in her life whom she is able to trust or respect. I'm profoundly grateful that this is not true of me.

Amidst all my sorrow and anger while reading this book, I am more convinced than ever that what the oppressed women of the world truly need is not feminism, but the Gospel. As Sultana reflects after winning a major battle, "I had found that there is little joy derived from forcing a man to do what is right. It can build schools, but it cannot transform people.

It can preach equality, it can try to impose equality, but it can't make a man delight to lay down his life for his wife and daughters. Sultana speaks of the hypocrisy of her country, where young girls can be stoned to death for fornication after having been raped, or where the wealthy enjoy expensive alcohol while upholding a regime that outlaws it. Feminism simply does not have the power to change individuals, much less cultures.

The most it can do is replace one kind of hypocrisy with another, and only when it is in a position of cultural power. What's needed is someone with the power to retake the world with a mustard seed, with a pebble, with a grain of yeast. What's needed is someone with the power to kill a man and then make him a whole new creation - and nothing less will do: Sultana is, in a way, right when she says, "this grotesque disease of preeminence lives in the sperm of all men and is passed along, generation to generation.

What's needed is Jesus. Aug 08, Anum rated it liked it Shelves: biographies , non-fiction , 3-stars-not-bad. Hypocrisy rules the land of the religion that strongly condemned the act the act of hypocrisy centuries ago! The true story of one of the princesses of the royal house of Al Saud in Saudi Arabia is told in a fashion that is both charming and riveting. The veil that guards the women of the Saudi Arabia also hides behind it years of cruelty and injustice. It was a very strange experience to read this book.

It appears highly prophetic to find out that the very people who call themselves the keepers o Hypocrisy rules the land of the religion that strongly condemned the act the act of hypocrisy centuries ago!

It appears highly prophetic to find out that the very people who call themselves the keepers of the faith consider themselves above it. They seem to be guarding their own follies from the eyes of world rather than guarding themselves against the temptations and evils that may lead them astray. The many atrocities mentioned as to have been committed in the name of faith and Islam has no basis in it at all.

For example, the case of the young girl who was punished by death for fornication right after giving birth was a very high act of injustice. I am sure as those teenage boys had no access to such witnesses considering the girl was completely innocent, her death was not a punishment but instead would be deemed as murder. It is sad to see that the name of the religion which holds the honour of a woman more precious is being used to guard the false honour of the hypocritical men of the Saudi society.

Islam remains misconstrued and misinterpreted even among the people who speak the language of its holy book. A prime example of this is the treatment of maids as slaves by some of the families. Considering slavery was outlawed by the mutual agreement of all nations the laws concerning the slaves no longer apply. However, even if one was to ponder over the matter, countless accounts throughout the lives of the Prophet and early converts shows that kindness and compassion was preached in their treatment instead of cruelty and violence.

Freeing of slaves, whether Muslim or otherwise, was considered a great act of humanity. Moreover, the purchasing of a slave and hiring of maid are two very different things. The maid is an employee, a free woman, upon whom the employer has no personal right. The Prophet P. This idea seems to be lost to most of the families depicted. Forgiveness is admired in the religion of Islam yet its followers seem to stubbornly unforgiving it is a shock that they seem to have even a modicum of understanding of their faith, apart from the harsher to harshest punishments that they can execute on those below them in ranks and power.

The laws that apply to women also apply to men yet only the women seem to be punished and the men forgotten. A land which is the home of the religion of justice breeds so much injustice, it is unfathomable. The education of women was encouraged by the Prophet P. How will she learn to manage and teach her children without having a firm grounding herself? No one seems to notice this.

This book raises a number of questions, including its authenticity, I have to admit. I felt that there is enough truth in the words of the author about the conditions of the Saudi women and society that they cannot be ignored.

The treatment of women in Saudi Arabia breaches all forms of human rights and cross all borders of humanity! Hypocrisy should not rule any land which runs under the banner of the great religion of Islam and sadly that is all it does!!! This is the true story of a Saudi Arabian Princess.

I am sure that most people can guess some of the horrors discussed in this book. Unfortunately, this wasn't really anything new to me. I am fairly familiar with Arab culture. I imagine this book would really surprise some. I am not so quick to condemn them all because of the acts of a few.

However, it is difficult to This is the true story of a Saudi Arabian Princess. However, it is difficult to justify a religion that generally has created great inequalities, not to mention human rights violations. Jun 08, Umama A. Talha rated it did not like it Shelves: trash. An absolute orientalist trash. Not worth your time, energy and money. Apr 01, Irene rated it liked it. A member of the Saudi royal family told her story to a Western writer because it would not be safe for her to publish under her own name in her country.

Although her family is not part of the branch that governed Saudi Arabia, it does share in its extreme wealth and privilege. This princess tells the story of absolute subjugation as a female in Saudi Arabia's patriarchal culture.

She may live in a magnificently gilded cage, but it remains a cage. How much worse life is for the female guest worke A member of the Saudi royal family told her story to a Western writer because it would not be safe for her to publish under her own name in her country. How much worse life is for the female guest workers and impoverished Saudi women is only hinted at.

Dec 03, Brightness rated it really liked it Shelves: biography-memoir , reviewed , , feminism , 4-stars , non-fiction. I finished this book and set it aside, wanting to immediately write an incensed rage review at a world where inequalities like this still exist and atrocities are still committed against women in the name of religion.

Granted, a lot of what occurs to our Sultana and her relatives and friends can be categorized more as cultural practices instead of religious mandates, but to me countries like Saudi Arabia and others have found a way to fuse those two separate categories into one grossly unfair pr I finished this book and set it aside, wanting to immediately write an incensed rage review at a world where inequalities like this still exist and atrocities are still committed against women in the name of religion.

Granted, a lot of what occurs to our Sultana and her relatives and friends can be categorized more as cultural practices instead of religious mandates, but to me countries like Saudi Arabia and others have found a way to fuse those two separate categories into one grossly unfair practice against the female sex. Cultural laws upheld by religion. Or religious laws upheld by culture. Either way they've meshed so effortlessly together that sometimes it's difficult to determine when something or someone is being scrutinized through the eyes of religion or through the veins of established culture.

It was also one of the things I found most frustrating about the novel. Sultana is an anomaly. Standing up for her rights. But the apathy of some of her relatives and friends I found most sorrowful.

It's akin to brainwashing and many of these women believe all of the lies they have been brought up with their whole lives. I'm glad I didn't write that review though. It would have been so full of expletives and blind rage that I don't think I would have been able to clearly expressed my thoughts on this book - though my feelings towards it would have been easily decipherable.

I read the first half of the book fairly quickly in one sitting. Each chapter bringing intense feelings of anger and anguish, as well as respect and admiration of Sultana's fiery and defiant character. Then I did an internet search on the author to see if I could discover more of how she went about communicating with the Sultana and how those interactions came to result in the publication of such a powerful novel.

Surprise, surprise. I discovered a controversy. Namely, the fact that the authenticity of Jean Sasson's novel has been called into question, as has the identity and even existance of the Sultana - the voice of the novel.

I didn't really know what to think. Basically all we have is hearsay and he said, she said situations. The only facts that are clear is that Jean Sasson spent roughly about 12 years living in Saudi Arabia, and four years of those she spent working in a hospital in the city of Riyadh. I can only imagine the kinds of things she saw and experienced during her time abroad. I can only imagine that they played a major role in the realization of this novel. I went back to the book, expecting to be a bit more skeptical after my research, but finding my feelings to be just as strong as they were before.

Seething at the injustices. Crying at heartbreaking hopelessness that is pervasive throughout the narrative in spite of Sultana's largely optimistic outlook. I realized that even if Sultana didn't exist in the way Jean Sasson claimed, it didn't matter.

A rudimentary internet search on the conditions of women in Saudi Arabia will all but confirm their second class status as Sultana so effectively demonstrates over and over and over again. Most of the events in this novel occurred over 40 years ago and small strides have been made as far as women's rights are concerned.

In Princess, stories of girls as young as 12 or 13 being married to men as old as 60 are heartbreaking and believable. Today a women's rights website for Saudi Arabia states that the average age for girls to marry is now Women were also mostly denied education across the board, but today they receive schooling and most even attend and graduate from colleges with degrees.

Changes have come, but slowly, and the status of women in one of the wealthiest countries on earth still is staggeringly archaic compared to what women in western countries experience. A simple internet search will reveal from established and respected world news outlets that women are still considered second class citizens and subject to the harshest of punishments.

Women drivers are flogged, as are rape victims. Honor killings still occur. They are still forced to cover themselves in abayas and niqabs. Only eyes are allowed to show. Men can take up to four wives and most of them do - and they can add even more wives if they are royalty and can afford it. Women are still segregated away from men, in the business world, in restaurants, in places of worship, even in their own homes - not unlike the situation of African-American's back when they were considered second class citizens, before the civil rights movement.

And the sex? I am One. Everest Disaster - Jon Krakauer. Seuss - Dr. Steve Albrecht. Maarten Troost. Wylie Blanchet. One School at a Time - Greg Mortenson. Mapp Jr. Scott Momaday. Sproul: A Life - Stephen J. Peterson, Translator of the Message - Winn Collier. I do what I think is best and then whatever happens, happens! I'll face it when it comes to me! Write a comment I have an idea for a book and it is a very depressing topic, and doing research I find myself getting more depressed.

How do you deal with the emotions that depressing things bring up in your books? Jean Sasson I admit that when dealing with a depressing topic that the writer will be affected. I sometimes weep when writing certain stories that are in the book …more I admit that when dealing with a depressing topic that the writer will be affected.

I sometimes weep when writing certain stories that are in the books. But this is part of the writing process. If a writer does not have empathy, I cannot imagine writing a book filled with feelings and emotions that touches the reader. Good luck on your project! Artemis Hi Jean, on that note, can you please tell us if there was any update on the shadow women in cell 52 in Mayada's book.

DId she find any of those women Hi Jean, on that note, can you please tell us if there was any update on the shadow women in cell 52 in Mayada's book. DId she find any of those women till date? Jean Sasson Mayada spoke with some of the families, but they were too frightened to have a real conversation and some hung up the phone on her, but sadly, Mayada Mayada spoke with some of the families, but they were too frightened to have a real conversation and some hung up the phone on her, but sadly, Mayada never found any of the women who shared her cell.

Sadly, Mayada passed away yesterday from a long battle with cancer. See all 14 answers from Jean Sasson…. Combine Editions. Jean Sasson Average rating: 3. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Jean Sasson Goodreads Author ,. Najwa bin Laden ,. Omar bin Laden. Mayada, Daughter of Iraq Missing my dearest friend, Mayada, who passed away in She lived a most interesting life… Distinctly Uniform This book by Jean P Sasson like all of her other books has a female protagonist in a middle-eastern setting.

Her grandfather Sati Al-Husri is a much known and respected Arab nationalist and her patern Read more of this blog post ». View more on Jean Sasson's website ».

View all 73 posts ». Series by Jean Sasson. Jean is Currently Reading. Jean Sasson rated a book it was amazing. May 15, PM. Jean Sasson rated a book liked it. Jean Sasson wrote a new blog post. Quotes by Jean Sasson. Sasson, Princess Sultana's Daughters.