Sasson Jean P - Princess Sultanas Circle

Also by Jean Sasson

The Rape of Kuwait

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

Princess Sultanas Daughters

For additional information about Jean Sasson and her books, or for updates on Princess Sultana, womens issues and Saudi Arabia, please visit the following websites:

http://www.JeanSasson.com

http://www.PrincessSultanasCircle.com

http://www.Windsor-Brooke.com

To our precious Kayleigh

Princess Sultanas Circle is a true story.

For the personal safety of the people featured in this book, names have been changed and various events have been slightly altered.

By revealing these true life stories, neither the Princess nor the author intend to demean the rich and meaningful Islamic religion.

Special thanks to those wonderful people who must go unnamed, yet have assisted me so that I might continue telling the significant and wonderful story of a very unique Princess.

On September 7, 1978, I traveled to Saudi Arabia with the idea that I would live and work in the country for only a few years, but I remained in Riyadh, the capital of that desert kingdom, until 1991. In 1983, I met Sultana Al Saud, a royal princess. This delightful woman exercised upon me a fascination that has not left me since. I had worked at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre for four years. During that time, I had met various members of the large Saudi royal family and had made the sad discovery that on the whole they were spoiled and self-absorbed. Most could see no further than the monarchy and all its trappings.

However, Sultana was unlike any royal I had met. Sultana was young and beautiful. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders and her eyes sparkled with curiosity. Her lips frequently opened wide in spontaneous laughter. Dressed in expensive clothes and decorated with eye-catching jewels, Sultana captured the undivided attention of everyone around her.

Beyond her obvious beauty and charm, I had expected this royal to be like every other princess I had met, but I was surprised and pleased to learn that Sultana was a woman with an independent mind who seemed to hunger to bring change to the lives of women in Saudi Arabia. Although she had been raised to privileges of the enormously wealthy ruling family of Saudi Arabia, she made no effort to conceal that where issues regarding women were involved, she was in a rebellion against the traditions and customs of her own country.

As our friendship slowly developed. I came to know a woman of great strength of will and character. Although her judgments and conduct is often clouded with passion, frequently creating emotional situations unexpected among adults, it is easy to overlook such behavior, for Sultana is selfless, caring and sensitive when it comes to other women. When Sultana discovers any injustice against another woman she springs into action, regardless of any personal danger to herself.

When Sultana confided to me that she had conceived many plans to make the tragic stories of Saudi women known to the world, but had never been free to do so because of the danger it would attract to her immediate family and herself, I agreed to help her make her wish come true. Together, we would bring these horrifying and unbelievable true stories to the worlds attention.

And so, protecting her anonymity, I became the voice for a princess. In the book, Princess, the world first learned of Sultanas life as an unwanted daughter of a cruel man in an unforgiving society that places little value on females.

Sultanas most beloved sister, Sara, was married against her will to a much older man whom she did not know nor love. From the time of her wedding, Sara was subjected to terrible sexual assaults by her husband. Only after Sara attempted suicide would her father allow her to seek a divorce and return home.

Sultanas own unhappy childhood experiences caused her to become a rebellious teenager. But she learned in a most horrifying manner that rebellion against the harsh system of her country could only lead to disaster when one of her own friends was executed by her own father, for the crime of sexual misconduct.

At age sixteen, Sultana was told her father that he had arranged for her to marry a cousin, Kareem. Sultana and Kareems betrothal was unlike most Saudi engagements, for Kareem requested to meet his future bride, and his request was granted. Upon their first meeting, Kareem and Sultana were strongly attracted to each other. They quickly fell in love, and enjoyed a special union of mutual love, so unlike most Saudi marriages.

The early years of her marriage brought Sultana the tranquility she had always desired. She and Kareem were blessed first with a son, Abdullah, and then with two daughters, Maha and Amani.

Sultana and her family remained in Riyadh during the Gulf War of 1991. The princess was saddened that this war, rather than helping the status of women in Saudi Arabia as she had hoped, made their lives even more difficult. Sultana mourned that when the war ended, thin veils thickened, bare ankles were covered, and loosened chains were tightened.

In Princess Sultans Daughters, the princess and I told the world that her immediate family had learned that she was the princess behind the book, Princess, which had become a bestseller in many countries, but that the secret of her identity had been maintained as far as the rest of the royal family was concerned.

Readers also learned that despite Sultanas constant battle against the status quo, and her own relatively enlightened marriage, her own two daughters did not escape the pressures of feudal prejudices against women in Saudi Arabia.

Sultanas daughters each reacted differently to her Saudi heritage. Her eldest daughter, Maha, hated the life of a woman in Saudi Arabia, and following in Sultanas own path, rebelled against the injustices she saw inflicted on women in her country. She became so unsettled in her mind that she had to undergo psychiatric treatment in London before she could resume life in Saudi Arabia.

Amani, Sultanas youngest daughter, reacted in a way which was even more troubling to her mother. Amani embraced the Islamic faith with a distressing degree of fanaticism. As Sultana fights against the veil, Amani battles for the veil.

In this book, Sultana has asked me to be her voice once more. Although she continues to challenge the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia by letting the world know that the ongoing abuse of women in her country is both alarming and routine, Sultana has discovered a new direction for helping women worldwide, and persists in her gallant crusade for reform.

Although readers of this book will learn that Sultana is from perfect, and that her imperfections are often all too human, no one can doubt her sincerity when is comes to fighting for the rights of women.

As a writer, and her friend, I am proud to tell the story of this extraordinary princess.

My Dream

A few months ago as I lay sleeping, beloved mother came to me in a dream. Mother was robed in an embroidered cloak of vivid red; her long, black hair was braided with golden threads. Her face was shining and unlined, and her luminous eyes were all-knowing and wise.

Her appearance under a shimmering green tree beside a spring of the bluest water dazzled me. Bright flowers grew lush and abundant all around her.

In my dream, my heart was beating wildly as I called out, Mother! With arms outspread, I anxiously hurried toward her. But there was an invisible barrier keeping her tantalizingly out of reach.