Princess - Jean P. Sasson

Princess is a real-life-story unlike any that I have ever read before. From the moment I opened the cover I was hooked. From start to finish the book is a testimony to a woman of indomitable spirit and great courage and Jean Sasson truly captures the flavour and reality of life as 'Sultana' the Saudi Princess. 'Sultana's' birth nor death will ever be recorded, for she is a woman. A woman who lives in a society where only men have worth. 'Sultana' lives her life like a prisoner is a gilded cage, she has unlimited funds at her disposal yet she lacks the one thing she desires the most. Freedom. Wherever she is she is totally at the mercy of the men ...

Princess, by Jean Sasson, is the biographical and often disturbing account of one woman's life in a relatively modern Saudi Arabia; which still believes its women are inferior to its menfolk. The author, Jean Sasson, spent over ten years living and working in Riyadh and was incensed at the inequality of women within the country, and the power that men hold, and it was during this time that she met Princess Sultana. The Princess, the youngest in a family of eleven surviving children, including only one boy, begged Sasson to write her biography, based on her diaries even from childhood. Sasson was reluctant to write this biography at first; and it was not until ...

I guess the majority of women wonder what it is like for the women behind the veils. You know what it is like, walking down the street and then suddenly you see half a dozen females walking towards you and sometimes looking pretty scary as they are dressed from top to toe in dark, heavy clothing with veils covering their faces. Often I have thought that they must be pretty stupid to let men and religion dictate to them in such a fashion. After all, it must be pretty unbearable to wear this clothing especially on hot summer days and I have always thought that their pretty faces are locked away behind the veils. Throughout my years I have heard bits and ...