Princess

by Sasson, Jean

• ISBN13: 9780967673745
• ISBN10: 0967673747
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Windsor-Brooke Books, LLC

Summary

Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in reality she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons. Hidden behind her black floor-length veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, her sons, and her country.Sultana is a member of the Saudi royal family, closely related to the king. For the sake of her daughters, she has decided to take the risk of speaking out about the life of women in her country, regardless of their rank. She must hide her identity for fear that the religous leaders in her country would call for her death to punish her honesty. Only a woman in her position could possibly hope to escape from being revealed and punished, despite her cloak and anonymity.Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. Although they share affection, confidences and an easy camaraderie within the confines of the women's quarters, they also share a history of appaling oppressions, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations; thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the "women's room," a padded, windowless cell where women are confined with neither light nor conversation until death claims them.By speaking out, Sultana risks bringing the wrath of the Saudi establishment upon her head and te heads of her children. But by telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme.

Table of Contents

Introduction	17	(8)
Childhood	25	(10)
Family	35	(8)
My Sister Sara	43	(10)
Divorce	53	(8)
Ali	61	(10)
The Trip	71	(10)
Journey's End	81	(8)
Girlfriends	89	(14)
Foreign Women	103	(18)
Huda	121	(8)
Kareem	129	(12)
The Wedding	141	(10)
Married Life	151	(14)
Birth	165	(10)
Dark Secrets	175	(12)
Death of a King	187	(12)
The Woman's Room	199	(12)
Second Wife	211	(8)
Escape	219	(14)
The Great White Hope	233	(12)
Epilogue	245	(2)
Afterword	247	(34)
Appendices
A---The Koran on Women	255	(12)
B---Laws of Saudi Arabia	267	(4)
C---Glossary	271	(4)
D---Chronology	275	(6)
Index	281