Princess Sultana's Daughters

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's 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. (July)

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. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/94.]-Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville

Brian McCombie

In a country where woman are still essentially bought or bartered, the princess (real name withheld) is justifiably fearful when the family realizes she is the subject of the 1992 expose, "Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia". If this book has a thesis, it is a line the princess uses to describe the troubles her own daughters are going through as they try to assert themselves in the male-dominated society: "When normal is forbidden, people fall into the abnormal." With religious police watching over their morals, one wonders just how more "abnormal" these people and their country can be. The answer: quite a bit. This book, both fascinating and depressing, shows that women are much less than second-class citizens in Saudi society.