Princess Sulatana's Daughters (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) [School & Library Binding]

Jean P. Sasson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0613709209 | ISBN-13: 978-0613709200

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sasson's sequel to Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil is another page-turner related by "Princess Sultana." A member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, Sultana now is married to a progressive prince, but this privileged status does not protect her or her two daughters from the country's repressive laws against women. Though a devout Muslim, Sultana believes the entrenched male power structure has perverted religious doctrine to justify veiling women and depriving them of basic civil liberties. The lack of opportunity to forge equal relationships with men before and after marriage, Sultana argues, is why one of her daughters became fanatically religious and the other suffered a mental breakdown. This eye-opening account is limited to life among the royals rather than a critique of Saudi Arabian society, although Sultana describes the brutal custom of female circumcision practiced by the poor.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In this sequel to the popular Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia (LJ 7/92), Sultana continues her shocking and amazing story into the next generation. Feeling that men are generally at the root of female grief, she argues that it is the duty of the discontented like herself to seek change so that her children's generation will have some relief from the oppression that stifles Saudi women's lives today. The book is more than that-it gives insight into the lives of royalty and the views of those who can be religious while flaunting the strict Sunni rules against alcohol and temporary marriage. This book charms the heart and should be a popular item for general collections.
--Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• School & Library Binding: 256 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613709209
• ISBN-13: 978-0613709200
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,581,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jean's first book THE RAPE OF KUWAIT, based on her eye witness reporting on the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops, was an immediate bestseller. Shortly thereafter she became a full-time writer. Her next three books, PRINCESS, PRINCESS SULTANA'S DAUGHTERS, and PRINCESS SULTANA'S CIRCLE, became international sensations as they were the first books to bring to the western world the shocking stories about life for women in Saudi Arabia. Jean is also the author of MAYADA, DAUGHTER OF IRAQ, about the prison experiences of an Iraqi journalist praised by Saddam Hussein; LOVE IN A TORN LAND: The True Story of a Freedom Fighter's Escape from Iraqi Vengeance which tells the story of a beautiful Kurdish woman; GROWING UP BIN LADEN: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us into Their Secret World; and FOR THE LOVE OF A SON: One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child. Her work has been featured in People, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The Sunday London Times, The Guardian, CNN, FOX, NBC, and many other news organizations.

A Note from Author Jean Sasson

Why do I care so much about the plight of women of the world? The answer is simple: because I can't help it.

I grew up in the United States, in a tiny town down South. In my daily experience, women enjoyed full freedom to do as they pleased. During those early years, it was beyond my imagining that women might be discriminated against.

But from a young age, I noticed mankind's occasional unthinking mistreatment of other animals. Such cruelty broke my heart, and I took aggressive action to aid animals in need. Mischievous boys who thought it amusing to tie a bag of rocks to a cat's tail soon learned to avoid me. I cared for a number of animals of my own, including some rather eccentric ones, such as a pet chicken named Prissy that I taught to walk on a lead. Another pet chicken, named Ducky, accompanied me like my little shadow and brought me endless joy. I had a number of cats and, when I grew older, I got my first doggie, a black cocker spaniel named, yes, Blackie! Others - Frisky, Doby, and a Peke named Goo Boo - soon followed.

As I grew older, it seemed that all the homeless dogs and cats in my little town "knew" to gather in our yard, sensing that I could not turn a single one away.

An impulse to save needy animals carried on throughout my entire life, and I was willing to pursue eccentric efforts to save a chained or otherwise mistreated animal. After I moved to Saudi Arabia, our villa in a Saudi neighborhood quickly filled with abandoned dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and even ducks!

Friends who stayed overnight in our home were often confronted with the challenge of sharing their bed with a couple of affectionate cats, of being roused in the morning by songs from caged birds, or of arranging their evening ablutions alongside a surprise in the guest bathroom: a bathtub filled with ducks!

Some people say that my heightened sensitivity is a blessing, while others stamp it a curse. I endorse the "blessing" tag and exult that I've been the joyful "mother" of 31 cats and dogs, the "foster mom" of many others until I could find an appropriate home, as well as the caretaker of too many birds to count. A few years ago a friend from the days of Saudi laughingly confided that my nickname was "The Bird Woman of Riyadh," a title unknown to me during my 12 years of living in the desert kingdom.

In Saudi Arabia, I worked as the Administrative Coordinator of Medical Affairs at The King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. Most hospital reports crossed my desk prior to being presented to my boss who was the head of the hospital. Therefore, I was privy to the details of many human tragedies. But the reports that haunted me most were the stories of women who had been brutally mistreated. And, more often than not, it seems, their injuries had been inflicted by the very men who were supposed to protect them. Many Saudi men, of course, were wholly kind to the females in their family. But when the occasional man lashed out at a wife or daughter with cruelty or brutality, the women of the family had nowhere to turn for help. The man's word was absolute law and no outside organization would dare interfere. A woman's helplesness in such a situation is heartrending and nearly unsolvable.

I saw sadness almost every day that I worked at the hospital, most of it associated with women's issues. Unfortunately, there was little I could do - for I, too, was a disenfranchised woman, in a country not my own.

But I met several Saudi women who desperately plotted for change. One was a Saudi princess, a woman the world now knows as Princess Sultana Al-Saud. Understanding her culture well, she described that nothing would crack Saudi men's determination to maintain the status quo...nothing, that is, short of worldwide indignation. For this reason, the princess was fierce in her belief that the story of Saudi women must be told. Most importantly, she wanted her own life experiences to be the story that inflamed the world.

For years we discussed this possibility, but after my book THE RAPE OF KUWAIT lent me the clout of a bestseller, we knew the time was right to expose the tragedies that afflict so many women on this earth. By then, we were both mature women who understood that discrimination against women is not limited to Saudi Arabia or to the Middle East, but is a worldwide problem, aggrieving women in Western nations, too. But first we would tell HER story.

Storytelling is powerful. A powerful book or movie can inform and inflame. That is why I think it is wonderful that so many books are now being written about the plight of women worldwide. I support all authors who make this important subject their life's work.

I am proud that PRINCESS was the first book to be written about the life of a Saudi Arabian woman, because Saudi life for females is completely unique and cannot compare with any other Middle Eastern country, or for that matter, any country in the world.

After PRINCESS, I shared other, very powerful stories. After traveling to Iraq in July 1998, I wrote about Mayada Al-Askari in MAYADA, DAUGHTER OF IRAQ. Later I shared the story of Joanna's great adventure, the story of a Kurdish woman's escape from Northern Iraq in the book LOVE IN A TORN LAND. Soon came the compelling story of Osama's wife and son, called: GROWING UP BIN LADEN. My latest account is FOR THE LOVE OF A SON: ONE AFGHAN WOMAN'S QUEST FOR HER STOLEN CHILD, a story that will make you weep and make you laugh. Such exuberance is typical of so many lives, lives laced with good and with bad. And who would deny the importance of any story that details the life of a woman who challenges an unjust system? Such stories are criticized only by those who care nothing about the status of women.

I hope that you learn about women of the world, and that you, too, work to ensure that every human being - male or female - has the right to lead a life of dignity.

Jean Sasson
www.jeansasson.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ***** A GREAT BOOK *****, April 22, 2000

By 

JGC - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Princess Sultana's Daughters (Paperback)

After reading the first book about Princess Saltana (Princess) I knew that Daughters would be fascinating. And it is! The book discusses her 2 daughters and 1 son and picks up where her last book left off. Her youngest daughter is a devout Muslim with an extremely oppressive mentality towards her society. Her second child is a wild child by Saudi standards but her mother loves her just the same. And Princess Saltana's oldest child, her son is as compassionate and liberated as his mother. She raised him well. This story takes place in Saudi Arabia where women are treated as second class citizens. The men use their religion to justify all sorts of heinous crimes which is sickening when I thick about it. These men who degrade women are cowards but they get away with anything they want. In the USA they would be called pedophiles and locked up in jail. But in Saudi Arabia they are free to do exactly as they please. This is also about a country that regards wealth and physical attributes of the most important things in life, money and sex go hand and hand. And women are treated as property to gain social and economic power. Princess Saltana is a heroine for telling her story, even though her family found out about her first book. She is also a heroine for preaching women's rights in a land that has no rights for women. She is a heroine because she sees hope in the future for the women of her country. The book isn't only about her daughters it is also about Princess Saltana's life and family. She is a deeply moving person with a lot of conviction. And I can only hope that one day all the women in her country will be treated with the basic human rights that they all deserve - but do not have. I just found out there is a third book about Princess Saltana titled Princess Saltana's Circle, I am sure it will be an interesting read too. Also I want to say that Jean Sasson is a genius and a brilliant writer!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Princess Sultana's Daughters (Paperback)

I've worked for the royal family in Saudi Arabia for the past twenty-five years, and I can say with all honesty that this book depicts the lives of Saudi Princes and Princesses very accurately. This is a natural outcome for a family that has low morale values and encourages its members to indulge in life's materialistic leisure in every possible way at the expenses of the Saudi people. While at the same time leaching the religious police to tighten the iron grip on the their poor citizens in the name of Islam. However, let not confuse Islam with the practices of the royal family, the religious police, or the religious fanatics in the country. The majority of Saudi men and women live according to the principles of their religion in what they consider it to be a near perfect way of living, despite the obvious lack of freedom, human rights violations, and social and economic injustices that they suffer.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than true, March 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Princess Sultana's Daughters (Paperback)

I have lived in Saudi Arabia, my husband, and children are from there, and I myself am an Arab. I can tell you that Jean Sasson knows what she is talking about, as I myself have had similar experiences living in Saudi, as have friends and family. I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but many reviewers have said that the accounts in the books could not be true, because their Arab boyfriends told them, or because an Arab friend denies it. You would have to live in that country to know how true it is. And really live there, emersed in the culture, and society, and not living on some campus, or compound, surrounded by westerners, and with limited access to the average Saudi. I totally related to the books, PRINCESS, and DAIGHTERS, and found that some of the experiences the Princess had were exactly the same, or similar to things I myself had gone through, or others that I knew had. Those who think this book is fictional have obviously had no experience living in Saudi, or have some agenda, possibly someone who has been paid to give the book a bad review, as the Saudi government is very keen to keep up a facade, favourable to their royal family, and have been known to use these kinds of tactics, even going so far as to purchase large amounts of stock in certain media, either radio, television, and newspaper, to keep bad press about Saudi Arabia hidden from the outside world. These books are a danger to the Saudi Royal family, and I applaud Ms. Sassons courage, and that of the Princess for bringing the truth to the world, in a way that is both respectful, and in no way and indictment of the Islamic faith. Beleive me, it is true, and my only regret is that I only have 5 stars to give.