Princess
Book written by Jean Sasson
Part of a Trilogy (Princess, Daughters of Arabia, Desert Royal)

This is the kind of book that will give you goose bumps. It is true life story of a Saudi Arabian princess ...confused that how a story about a royal lifestyle ever give you chills....this book realistically captures the contradictions & extremities in that society and the power of unlimited wealth.

Princess Sultana is a real Saudi princess who has told her story anonymously through the writer. She talks about how the life of women in her society is controlled by the various men in their life -father,brother and husband and how they are treated as objects. She has all the wealth in the world...we are talking about the types ....where you have palaces in every major city of the country, priceless jewels, unlimited people to serve you, private jets to take you for a one day shopping trip to Harrods or wherever you wish to go.....But then she reveals shocking stories of forced marriages, sex slavery, honour killings and other extreme atrocities against women.

But on the positive she also tells a story of how women like her are trying to voice their opinion in a society and hoping for a better tomorrow for her daughters. She gets married to a really good man. The book also gives a little history of the country which was good to know. Princess Sultana is a strong believer of Islam and clarifies that all these atrocities are NOT because of anything that The Prophet actually taught.

I have also came across an article on the net that talks about some controversy about some facts mentioned in this book (the parts about female genital mutilation)....so i needed to remind myself that this book was written in 1992....things must have changed after that and i need to take everything with a pinch of salt.