THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

This fascinating auto-biographical account details the life of a Saudi princess.  Using the pseudonym Sultana, to protect her safety, the princess paints a vivid and harrowing description of life for Saudi women. The Saudi princess blames the scourge of Muslim women on Muslim men who choose to follow the customs of the Dark Ages.  Sultana’s tale describes the lifestyle women endure from arranged marriages, divorce with little recourse, sexual enslavement, female mutilation, marriage at puberty, child rape, and the ultimate of horrors, the woman’s room.

Even leading the life of a princess with access to unimaginable wealth did not spare Sultana or female members of her family the abuse of oppression.  Sultana begins her tale with the fact that her mother, orphaned at eight, was married at twelve and had no idea of the brutality of life that awaited her.  Sultana writes that her own truth is simple; she was ignored by her father, scorned by her brother and abused by her husband.

Sultana writes of her relationship with her sister Sara, a brilliant student and lover of art who at sixteen was married off as the third wife to a sixty-two year old man and of the abuse she endured.

Citing many accounts of friends and family, Sasson imparts a believable, accountable view of female inequality in Saudi Arabia.  A plagiarism lawsuit made against Sasson involving the book was dismissed.

 

Note:  Sultana describes Jerusalem as the third holy place for Moslems.  Jerusalem is also a holy city for Christians.  However, Jerusalem  is the holiest place for Jews, and has been for 3,000 plus years, almost 2000 years before the reign of Muhammad in the 7th Century.  Muslims claimed the city as holy only in the 9th Century after Muhammad’s death.