Princess Sultana's Circle

by Jean Sasson

Book Overview

In Princess, readers were shocked by Sultana's revelations about life in Saudi Arabia's royal family. Royal women live as virtual prisoners, surrounded by unimaginable wealth and luxury, privileged... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967673763
• ISBN13: 9780967673769
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Windsor-Brooke Books
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Exelente

De las tres, esta me gustó mas. La primera esta fabulosa, la segunda buena y esta espectacular!!!!

Outstanding...

Excellent piece of work. I enjoyed it almost as much as the first two and that is saying a lot.

An Amazing story, & a real eye opener

I have all read of Jean's books in the Princess series, & this is one of my favorites. Actually, once I began reading them...that was it. I was hooked & couldn't put them down until I had completed reading the series. It's very obvious that the author is extremely knowledgeable about Saudi Arabia, & it's culture. The cruel, inhumane treatment of women was shocking & disgusting. I doubt if any women could read these stories & not realize that we are all one, & we must do whatever is necessary to help women everywhere who are living under such oppressive conditions.

Women of the World, Unite!

Having now finished the trilogy, I highly recommend all three, including the last installment. It's not the best writing always, but it is a valuable glimpse into the mysteries of female life on the peninsula. As a man, much of this world is forbidden to me. I enjoy studying Islamic culture, but I am naturally restricted in observation to the world of men, whereas Western women can at times be with women, and be "honorary men" in the world of men. So I am indebted to depictions such as this, getting into the mind, heart, and life of a woman. Sultana isn't always the most likable character- but, at least in the version written by Sasson, she freely admits this. And there are times when it is difficult to believe that this actually comes from a true Saudi woman, because of the great awareness the protagonist has of Western points of view. I appreciate the insights the book gives into one particular worldview- that of a wealthy, royal, Saudi woman. She effectively communicates the oppression she faces as a woman, and yet the extreme privilege she has obtained by being born into the House of Saud. But there are a number of times when Sultana's unquestioned assumptions are more revealing than her message. The quickness of husbands to buy something to soothe their wives only serves to placate the women and buy them off from truly grappling with reality- it dismisses their genuine concerns by encouraging them to find answer in wealth rather than God. Likewise, Sultana and Sasson do a very effective job of showing the great discrimination by women faced on the peninsula, but bend over backwards to praise the religion of Islam and separate it from what Sultana faces on a daily basis. Sadly, while the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia has certainly gone much further than the Qur'an in it's treatment of women, there are strong seeds of second-class status in the Qur'an and hadith themselves. This is seen in places where women are considered as less equal to a man in inheritance, the argument by Muslim theologians being that women need to be protected by men, and therefore men should have more money. Likewise in hadith (stories of Mohammed) that Sultana herself quotes about Mohammed having to redo prayer if a woman walked in front of him, and in the story that Sultana relates, again relying on Hadith, that a woman's silence means agreement to a marriage. This of course is based on a premise that women should be silent, not expressing themselves, and men should be doing the talking and thinking. These books are valuable, I believe, primarily because they reveal a world that needs such healing. Not simply a change in the actions of the Saudi government and religious police, but a change in the very nature and core of Islamic belief systems. Again and again Sultana shows us a world where the concept of gender reconciliation is completely foreign. Even when she has problems with a comparatively loving husband, she turns to scheming and gossip for answers;

Absolutely Riveting Read!!

I literally inhaled the first book, Princess and am waiting for the second book,Sultana's Daughter. I've just read this one, and I'm telling you, these books are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! It's really amazing that such barbaric customs exist!! However, It worries me a bit that people who read these books are going to confuse the Islam religion with these horrific and barbaric incidents that Sultana has reported. As a recent student of Islam, I wish to tell you that Islam, while their customs are very different than that of western customs, (wearing of the scarf or veil is to protect their beauty from the stares/advances of strangers,male and female), their Holy Book, the Quran, does NOT CONDONE such barbaric things as harems, and family-killing for punishment,etc!!What's going on, is a horrifying account of,(and perhaps even misguided,fanatical) supposedly Muslim men who, out of their misunderstanding of what their own religion is about, live life in a very UN-Muslim,indeed, UNHUMAN way!