has anyone read the trilogy of the princess books by jean sasson?
if you have can u tell me what you think?
the books are written by jean sasson and are about a saudi princess who has decided to expose the lives of women in saudia arabia. it revolves around her childhood, life and marriage and her observations generally.
at this moment in time i really enjoyed these books, i do not know if they are good or bad islamically or politically!!
i would recommend them as vital reading, please give comments after reading
yes I have read them a couple of years ago. I thought they were quite interesting but do wonder about the authenticity of them. How could a saudi princess annonymously tell all the secrets of palace life like that. I remember in one of the books she wrote about a trip abroad where her brother raped a 13 year old girl, the details are not exactly vague and therefore how come no one in Saudi figured out which member of the royal family was secretly writing this book through an american woman.
well actually her immediate family did find out it was her, her brother, father, sisters and husband.
but because the law and pardah etc is so strong she claims that saudi men have never seen her face and the day to day dealings only take place infront of family and a few servants. Others would not know about her experiences. about the rape or public events, most probably there are hundreds of people witness to events no one can say for sure who reported it etc.
There are over 5000 descendants of abdul aziz, there are hudreds of princesses of her position, its very hard to tell!
My wife has full collection of Jean Sasson's books. I did start to read one of them but realized that definately 50% of the literature there is a lie. I have lived in Saudi Society & ya women living there are in miserable condition as far as western world (or western world's tradtion standard) is concerned but then its their culture & tridtions so its upto them.
I couldn't read more than 15 pages because apparently its seemed to me that its her complaints & complaints ...... & complaints ... written all over the pages. But thats what I thought ... someone else might think differently about her views.
Najim, you're right. The books do seem to be absolutely full of endless complaints about how hard her life is. And if she's not complaining she's almost boasting about how much money the family has. I mean, okay its kinda assumed that if you are a saudi princess then you're going to be well off but do we really want to hear about every single item in the palaces and how much they cost and what the colour, make and model of every car they own is?
She has Khashogi's books, Paulo Coehelo (Might have mis-spelled his surname). Tehmina Durrni is another writer in her cupboard & several other that I dont know. Millions of book she read are non-English or translated version.
She speakes Italian, Czech & Slovak, Russian & German so ... that collection of books never attracted my attention.