Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in reality she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons. Hidden behind her black floor-length veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, her sons, and her country.Sultana is a member of the Saudi royal family, closely related to the king.
For the sake of her daughters, she has decided to take the risk of speaking out about the life of women in her country, regardless of their rank. She must hide her identity for fear that the religious leaders in her country would call for her death to punish her honesty. Only a woman in her position could possibly hope to escape from being revealed and punished, despite her cloak and anonymity.
Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. Although they share affection, confidences and an easy camaraderie within the confines of the women's quarters, they also share a history of appalling oppression's, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations; thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the women's room, a padded, windowless cell where women are confined with neither light nor conversation until death claims them.
By speaking out, Sultana risks bringing the wrath of the Saudi establishment upon her head and the heads of her children. But by telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme.
ISBN:2147483647
Author:Jean Sasson
Jimmy Nzioki –
Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold, will definitely be worth your time and dime. The author transports you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. The book is a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging.
Jimmy Nzioki –
Ever read a simple but well-written memoir? If not, then Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold will definitely be worth your time and dime.
The author wastes no time in transporting you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village. A place that was redolent with nature’s finest: a beautiful and flourishing land. One would dare imagine it to be a land flowing with milk and honey as the author gives a very vivid description of the scenery of her motherland in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. She relives what it was like growing up in the post-colonial world of Kenya in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. At times the author takes a break from her narration of events and muses over how things are not as they once were owing to various socio-economic factors of then and now. She then ropes in the reader back into the present.
Her story is aptly scattered in the book making the reader continue flipping the pages in order to find out what happened. It is non-linear. She honestly takes you through the motions of her joy and sorrows brought about by life’s inevitabilities of gains and losses. Her raw feelings of the loss of her mother are quite apparent as you read through. The three “marriages” of life as she calls them are: birth, marriage, and death. Stages that all of us will have to go through on this side of eternity. Her own near-death experience makes the reader realize the brevity of life and the faith that we need to possess in order to overcome certain trials in our lives.
The book is also a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging. Generally, it is a good read for anyone who would want to experience the old and new Kenya in a new way through the author’s point of view.
Jimmy Nzioki –
Ever read a simple but well-written memoir? If not, then Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold will definitely be worth your time and dime.
The author wastes no time in transporting you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village. A place that was redolent with nature’s finest: a beautiful and flourishing land. One would dare imagine it to be a land flowing with milk and honey as the author gives a very vivid description of the scenery of her motherland in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. She relives what it was like growing up in the post-colonial world of Kenya in the 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s. At times the author takes a break from her narration of events and muses over how things are not as they once were owing to various socio-economic factors of then and now. She then ropes in the reader back into the present.
Her story is aptly scattered in the book making the reader continue flipping the pages in order to find out what happened. It is non-linear. She honestly takes you through the motions of her joy and sorrows brought about by life’s inevitabilities of gains and losses. Her raw feelings of the loss of her mother are quite apparent as you read through. The three “marriages” of life as she calls them are: birth, marriage, and death. Stages that all of us will have to go through on this side of eternity. Her own near-death experience makes the reader realize the brevity of life and the faith that we need to possess in order to overcome certain trials in our lives.
The book is also a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging. Generally, it is a good read for anyone who would want to experience the old and new Kenya in a new way through the author’s point of view.