Jean Sasson's Blog
May 25, 2021
Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
Missing my dearest friend, Mayada, who passed away in 2015. She lived a most interesting life…
This book by Jean P Sasson like all of her other books has a female protagonist in a middle-eastern setting. This is a true story about Mayada Al-Askari who belongs to the royal family. Her grandfather Sati Al-Husri is a much known and respected Arab nationalist and her paternal grandfather Jafar Pasha Al-Askari was a World War II hero. Coming from such a family, Mayada had known people in the government and officials high up and led a privileged life. She worked as a journalist in a magazine and had met Saddam Hussein twice in person and had been personally awarded by him for her outstanding work.
Slowly as the Saddam regime grew powerful, the condition of people became worse and more and more people fled to nearby countries like Jordan. Mayada’s mother, Salwa was also one among them who moved to Jordan to escape the terror in her homeland. She…
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May 2, 2021
Princess – a tale of a true heroic woman.
It is difficult to appreciate the privileges that we have until we acknowledge the cruelty around the world. I am ashamed to say that i never understood the terror anyone went through until reading this book.
Princess by Jean Sasson – This book is one of the most compelling books that has been released so far… This is based on a true story of a Saudi princess who has been hiding under the veil her whole life and finally decided the world had to know the pain and agony the women in Saudi go through. When you read through the book there are times where a normal human being who has been sheilded by such horrific stories would look up in horror.. do things like this happen in this world? Alas it is true.. this book is quite a old book… when i was in school Princess was my first…
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Jean Sasson
Since the day i remember back to… i used to read… and love it. When it came to reading i was the only child in my household that my parents didnt scream at. To this day my parents still scream at my brothers because of the lack of interest when it comes to reading. 
Only time im regarded as important in my family. So anyway i understand i might not give a superb review as many people might do but im gonna try to do some justice ton these following books. When i was in School i started reading the Princess trilogy. It was a heart wrenching book that just took my breath away. The books highlighted the life of Princess Sultana and her family. Book 1 showed how she dealt with childhood as a young girl hidden behind the veil. Thrown away from the affections of a father…
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March 11, 2019
Princess by Jean Sasson
As the author, and a supporter of women worldwide, I am very pleased to see this well-thought out review.
Nothing makes me happier than buying books for low prices. There are only a few places where you can purchase cheap books in Dubai. One of my favourite places is House of Prose, a second-hand bookstore, where I bought Princess…a book that you can see in every bookstore around the city.
Through Jean Sasson, Sultana, a member of Saudi Arabian royal family, tells about shocking life behind the vail. She speaks about her own life and experiences of other Saudi women… stories of women glittering with jewels, living in luxury palaces with tens of servants. However, unbelievable wealth is just a cover for lack of freedom and total submission to men. Women are prisoners of their fathers and brothers, and then of their husbands. Women do not have a right to express their opinions, to work, or to leave the country without ‘master’s permission.
Without a doubt, the book is heart-…
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June 11, 2017
Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening
Excited to have this book ordered — I so admire the many Saudi women who are working to achieve equality…
I just read Manal Al Sharif’s book Daring to Drive. I knew that it was in the works for a few years and I had expectations and so did many other Saudis. We discussed and speculated what she’ll mention. In my conversations with her, Manal dropped some hints about what she’s writing about. However, the actual book is nothing like I anticipated. I expected that it would be a more general narrative on what it’s like for Saudi women; a more geographically parochial version of Mona Eltahawy’s Headscarves and Hymens. I thought it might focus more on what happened in 2011 and its aftermath. In actuality, the book is a shockingly intimate close-up examination of Manal herself. With childlike sincerity, Manal tells what it’s like growing up poor in Makkah and her volatile childhood home environment. She even recounts her botched circumcision and how the governmental school system…
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November 7, 2016
Discriminated against by a foreigner in my own country
This is not good! I was treated wonderfully by Saudis when I lived there between 1978-1992 and this blogger is right — most of the westerners I knew truly cared and were there to make a difference. Too bad this westerner is discriminating against the very people she should be befriending. I know that when I was there, it was relatively easy to make friends with Saudis and those friendships I cherished. Now it seems there is a line drawn between expats and Saudis. Makes me sad to see this change. This westerner needs to adjust her attitude and realize that she is a guest in Saudi Arabia and that she should do all she can to bridge any differences and misunderstandings.
I just had a really frustrating phone call. A friend of mine recommended a ballet instructor for my daughter. She gave me the number and I called to inquire and the lovely British ballet instructor informed me that she could not accept my daughter because we carry Saudi passports. I asked her why and she said that there is a directive that Saudi girls are not allowed to learn ballet. I asked her if she was ever provided with a written directive that Saudi girls weren’t allowed to learn ballet, and she said no that she was verbally instructed. I told her that that is not true and that there are ballet classes at some gyms here in Riyadh. So she changed the story and said that she had instructions that Saudis weren’t allowed on compounds. I told her that I’ve been in compounds. So she again changed the story…
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Wife-tracker revisited
In my last post I wrote about how guardians receive SMS notifications if their dependants leave or enter the country. Dependents in Saudi Arabia are defined as anyone on a man’s family card, including wife and adult daughters. A few years ago only men were allowed to have individual national ID cards once they turned 16. Women had to rely on being listed by name and number only on a man’s family card. The only way to have a photo ID for a woman is to get a passport. But that didn’t matter too much because the family card was accepted everywhere including banks, hospitals and courts. No need and requirement for a photo ID resulted in a lot of men abusing the system in several ways. Cases where men have another woman pose as his wife, daughter or even sister to get access to benefits or harm female relatives…
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posting from Rome
I am currently on a family vacation in Italy but I had to post what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent my husband. Apparently they have a new service where they send the male guardian a text every time a “dependent” leaves the country. They don’t state which country the dependent left for but simply state that they did leave. My husband tells me he got the same text when I left for Germany. I am an adult woman that has been earning my own income for over a decade now but according to the Saudi government, I am a dependent till the day I die because of my gender.
Otherwise, I am having loads of fun. yesterday I met one of my readers, Carmen. we had espresso near the Piazza Navona and then she showed me her beautiful shop, Via Dei Banchi Vecchi. It’s a Rome showroom for her…
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English version of piece published in Stern
VERY interesting and from the mouth of one who is living it…
This is the English original version I wrote and was translated to German and published in the new print edition of Stern magazine no41/2011, out today, Thursday, 6th of October, pages 54-57.
In Saudi Arabia my gender decides whether or not I can enter certain ministries, what I can major in college and if I can name my own child.
My gender mandates that I cannot drive my own car. No matter what age I am or how well I drive, I have to find a male to drive my car.
If I were divorced, a widow or simply had a husband that was out of the country at the time, my gender dictates that I have to find a male relative to obtain a birth certificate and document my child’s name at government circles.
My gender also mandates whether I can freely leave the country or not. As a…
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Divorce in Saudi Arabia
Even after all this time, so difficult for a Saudi woman to get a divorce. But, having said this, things ARE improving, slowly but surely, for Saudi women.
No matter how many reports you read about the rise in numbers of divorce cases in Saudi Arabia, it still remains a dirty word that Saudis are taught not to even contemplate. For my generation and those younger, there is a growing number who rebel. But for older couples it is still very true. No matter how much they hate each other, divorce is not an option. “Real” men and women never divorce. We are taught in schools that it is the most abhorred by God of all things Islamically permitted. Couples have separate bedrooms on different floors and lead chiefly separate lives and yet are still married. A man might take on a second wife and not see his first except twice a month to pay the bills and buy groceries. He does it because he thinks its manly and the woman stays on and is patient because that’s…
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