Princess Sultana's Circle
PRINCESS SULTANA’S CIRCLE
Book III in the Princess Trilogy
Jean Sasson
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Published by:
Jean Sasson at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by Jean Sasson
Front Cover Model’s Photograph by Marco Baldi for Studio Babaldi
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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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Jean Sasson is the sharp-eyed and compassionate chronicler of women’s lives in the Muslim world. Author of the worldwide bestsellers Princess, Daughters of Arabia, Desert Royal, Mayada: Daughter of Iraq, Love in a Torn Land and Growing up Bin Laden, she lived in Saudi Arabia for twelve years, and has travelled throughout the Middle East for thirty years. She currently makes her home in the southern United States.
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For more information on Jean Sasson and her books, see her website at www.jeansasson.com
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ALSO BY JEAN SASSON
NON-FICTION
The Rape of Kuwait
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Princess Sultana’s Daughters (Daughters of Arabia)
Princess Sultana’s Circle (Desert Royal)
Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
Love in a Torn Land: One Woman’s Daring Escape from Saddam’s Poison Gas Attacks On the Kurdish People of Iraq
Growing up Bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World
HISTORICAL FICTION
Ester’s Child
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For more information on Jean Sasson and her books, see her website at:
www.jeansasson.com
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This book is dedicated to all the young girls and women in the world.
May you have the right to live your life in dignity.
And, a personal dedication from me, to our precious Kayleigh Brooke
Books by Jean Sasson
The Rape of Kuwait
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Princess Sultana’s Daughters (UK title: Daughters of Arabia)
Princess Sultana’s Circle (UK title: Desert Royal)
Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein
Love in a Torn Land: One Woman’s Daring Escape from Iraq
Growing Up Bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take us Inside Their Secret World
For the Love of a Son: One Afghan Woman’s Quest for her Stolen Child
Ester’s Child
Princess Sultana’s Circle is a true story. For the personal safety of the people featured in this book, names have been changed and various events have been slightly altered.
By revealing these true life stories, neither the Princess nor the author intend to demean the rich and meaningful Islamic religion, of which the princess is a member.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to those wonderful people who must go unnamed, yet have assisted me so that I might continue telling the significant and wonderful story of a very unique Princess.
Update from Jean Sasson
The world as we know it was utterly changed on September 11, 2001. Few people were left untouched by the carnage brought against so many by so few. That eventful day even provoked military action. The haunting images of the war against terrorism were often tragic while others were uplifting, and none more so than the endearing smiles on the faces of the previously burqa clad women and girls of Afghanistan. Although our purposeful military mission was to seek justice and to stop suicide bombers from future odious acts, I have always believed that the emancipation of women is a freedom worth fighting for. A great imbalance is created in the world when women are treated as liabilities, as they are in many countries.
As the Afghani women celebrated, I rejoiced with them. As I listened to First Lady Laura Bush’s now famous radio broadcast about these women, I waited in anticipation, hoping that some golden words of hope would be cast to women in other countries. Consider the fact that women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden to drive or to participate in public life, or that newborn females have their spines snapped in India, or the outrage that men are acquitted for killing women who are raped in Pakistan, or that young girls are routinely forced into prostitution in Thailand.
I spoke with Princess Sultana during that time and was not surprised when I learned that she, too, was hoping that the great victory for women in Afghanistan would magically sweep her world. She, as I, was disheartened when she saw that the time had not yet come when every democratic government will do the responsible thing and proclaim that freedom is just as important for women, as it is for men. Surely, the world now knows that what imperils women, imperils the world.
Tragically, after the passing of nine years, the situation for women in Afghanistan is little better. The presence of the American military has done little to foster humanitarian rights for women. Young girls of age 8 are still wed to men of 30 or 40 years. There has been an increase in suicides of Afghan girls and women with most choosing to set themselves on fire. As far as I know, the Afghan government has not made one effort to help their own women. The future looks bleak for females in Afghanistan.
Shame on the American government and shame on the Afghan government for not making this most important issue a priority.
I felt so strongly about the plight of Afghan women that I took nearly two years out of my life to write the story of Maryam Khail, an Afghan woman who grew up in Afghanistan and escaped after the invasion of the Russians. Sadly, Maryam became a victim of her husband, and in the process lost her son. Princess Sultana told me that when she read Maryam’s story that her heart plunged in fear that a thousand years from now most men will still not care about the plight of women. From now on, the princess is including Afghan girls in her charity work.
The princess and I hope that readers will read Maryam’s story in For the Love of a Son: One Afghan Woman’s Quest for her Stolen Child.
The princess and I thank you for your support. I am hopeful that you will learn a lot from this latest book about Princess Sultana and her family. We would like to tell you that a full chapter will be added to this book sometime during the next year, a chapter that will update you on the life of Princess Sultana, her three children, and now, her two grandchildren. We also hope that you will join our “Circle of Women,” an organization finally to be formed in September 2012.
For additional information about Jean Sasson and her books, and updates on Princess Sultana, women’s issues, and the Middle East, please visit the author’s website: www.JeanSasson.com
You can also check out Jean’s blog at http://jeansasson.wordpress.com/ or write to Jean Sasson directly at wbbooks@hotmail.com.
Preface
On September 7, 1978, I traveled to Saudi Arabia with the idea that I would live and work in the country for only a few years, but I remained in Riyadh, the capital of that desert kingdom, until
the spring of 1992.
In 1983, I met Sultana Al Sa’ud, a royal princess. This delightful woman exercised upon me a fascination that has not left me since.
I had worked at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre for four years. During that time, I had met various members of the large Saudi royal family and had made the sad discovery that on the whole they were spoiled and self-absorbed. Most could see no further than the monarchy and all its trappings.
However, Sultana was unlike any royal I had met.
Sultana was young and beautiful. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders and her eyes sparkled with curiosity. Her lips frequently opened wide in spontaneous laughter. Dressed in expensive clothes and decorated with eye-catching jewels, Sultana captured the undivided attention of everyone around her.
Beyond her obvious beauty and charm, I had expected this royal to be like every other princess I had met, but I was both surprised and pleased to learn that Sultana was a woman with an independent mind who seemed to hunger to bring change to the lives of women in Saudi Arabia. Although she had been raised to the privileges of the enormously wealthy ruling family of Saudi Arabia, she made no effort to conceal that where issues regarding women were involved, she was in a rebellion against the traditions and customs of her own country.
As our friendship slowly developed, I came to know a woman of great strength of will and character. Although her judgment and conduct is often clouded with passion, frequently creating emotional situations unexpected among adults, it is easy to overlook such behavior, for Sultana is selfless, caring and sensitive when it comes to other women. When Sultana discovers any injustice against another woman she springs into action, regardless of any personal danger to herself.
When Sultana confided to me that she had conceived many plans to make the tragic stories of Saudi women known to the world, but had never been free to do so because of the danger it would attract to her immediate family and herself, I agreed to help her make her wish come true. Together, we would bring these horrifying and unbelievable true stories to the world’s attention.
And so, protecting her anonymity, I became the voice for a princess.
In the book, Princess, the world first learned of Sultana’s life as an unwanted daughter of a cruel man in an unforgiving society that places little value on females. Sultana’s most beloved sister, Sara, was married against her will to a much older man whom she did not know nor love. From the time of her wedding, Sara was subjected to terrible sexual assaults by her husband. Only after Sara attempted suicide would her father allow her to seek a divorce and return home.
Sultana’s own unhappy childhood experiences caused her to become a rebellious teenager. But she learned in a most horrifying manner that rebellion against the harsh system of her country could only lead to disaster when one of her own friends was executed by her own father, for the “crime” of sexual misconduct.
At age sixteen, Sultana was told by her father that he had arranged for her to marry a cousin, Kareem. Sultana and Kareem’s betrothal was unlike most Saudi engagements, for Kareem requested to meet his future bride, and his request was granted. Upon their first meeting, Kareem and Sultana were strongly attracted to each other. They quickly fell in love, and enjoyed a special union of mutual love, so unlike most Saudi marriages.
The early years of her marriage brought Sultana the tranquility she had always desired. She and Kareem were blessed first with a son, Abdullah, and then with two daughters, Maha and Amani.
Sultana and her family remained in Riyadh during the Gulf War of 1991. The princess was saddened that this war, rather than helping the status of women in Saudi Arabia as she had hoped, made their lives even more difficult. Sultana mourned that when the war ended, “thin veils thickened, bare ankles were covered, and loosened chains were tightened.”
In Princess Sultana’s Daughters, the princess and I told the world that her immediate family had learned that she was the princess behind the book, Princess, which had become a bestseller in many countries, but that the secret of her identity had been maintained as far as the rest of the royal family was concerned.
Readers also learned that despite Sultana’s constant battle against the status quo, and her own relatively enlightened marriage, her own two daughters did not escape the pressures of feudal prejudices against women in Saudi Arabia.
Sultana’s daughters each reacted differently to her Saudi heritage. Her eldest daughter, Maha, hated the life of a woman in Saudi Arabia, and following in Sultana’s own path, rebelled against the injustices she saw inflicted on women in her country. She became so unsettled in her mind that she had to undergo psychiatric treatment in London before she could resume life in Saudi Arabia.
Amani, Sultana’s youngest daughter, reacted in a way which was even more troubling to her mother. Amani embraced the Islamic faith with a distressing degree of fanaticism. As Sultana fights against the veil, Amani battles for the veil.
In this third book, Sultana has asked me to be her voice once more. Although she continues to challenge the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia by letting the world know that the ongoing abuse of women in her country is both alarming and routine, Sultana has discovered a new direction for helping women worldwide, and persists in her gallant crusade for reform.
Although readers of this book will learn that Sultana is far from perfect, and that her imperfections are often all too human, no one can doubt her sincerity when it comes to fighting for the rights of women.
As a writer, and her friend, I am proud to tell the story of this extraordinary princess.
Introduction
My Dream
A few months ago as I lay sleeping, my beloved mother came to me in a dream. Mother was robed in an embroidered cloak of vivid red; her long, black hair was braided with golden threads. Her face was shining and unlined, and her luminous eyes were all-knowing and wise.
Her appearance under a shimmering green tree beside a spring of the bluest water dazzled me. Bright flowers grew lush and abundant all around her.
In my dream, my heart was beating wildly as I called out, “Mother!” With arms outspread, I anxiously hurried toward her. But there was an invisible barrier keeping her tantalizingly out of reach.
Mother gazed at the youngest of her earthly children with great love mingled with sad resignation.
And then she spoke. Although her voice was sonorous and sweet, her revelation was stern. “Sultana,” she said, “my journey here has been frustrated by your pains, discontents, disappointments, and misfortunes.” She quietly scrutinized me.
“Daughter, when you were a wayward child, I often had to frighten you into reasonable behavior.” She arched her eyebrows, “I see that my presence is still needed, Sultana.”
The knowledge that I had created worries for my mother, even after she entered paradise, caused me to burst into tears.
I was born a Princess in a rich desert Kingdom where the persecution of women is increasing, and I could not dispute that I have led an unconventional life.
I cried out, “Mother, a great wind has carried me through life! How might I have lived my life differently?”
Mother slowly shook her head. “Even in the midst of a heated battle, Sultana, a good heart fights clean.”
I flinched.
Mother’s look softened. “But, that is not the matter of which I am now speaking, child.”
“Then, what?” I entreated.
“Sultana, your life is as that of a mindless magician unfurling endless silks. You seem to have everything in life; yet, you have nothing. Your existence does not bring you happiness, my daughter.”
Desperate for Mother to comfort me as she had done in the past, the significance of her words slipped past me.
Then the fragile petals of the flowers around her began to fold, and Mother’s countenance, too, began to fade.
I cried out, “Mother! Please stay! Wait!”
Her incandescent form was now barely visible, yet I clearly hea
rd her say, “Sultana, in the middle of a feast, you are starving. Dissolve into something greater than yourself, my child.”
I emerged from that dream in an ecstasy of joy, but the memory of Mother’s mysterious message has continued to haunt me.
Sadly, I had to acknowledge that Mother’s words were true, that I have let my life stagnate. Once, I embarked on a noble and stimulating quest to improve the lives of women in my land. But finding myself helpless against the unassailable power of Saudi Arabian men, I let myself grow discouraged. Yet, so long as women in my own country can be married against their will, physically abused and raped under the sanction of the law, even legally murdered at the whim of their fathers, husbands, and brothers, how could I stop fighting?
Following my mother’s visit, I took courage from the knowledge that there was still a purpose for me in this ongoing struggle, a new role that I was meant to fulfill. At this moment, however, I had no understanding of where that might lead.
Chapter One
Munira’s Destiny
One of the major traditions of Islam is reported to have originated from a meeting of the Prophet Mohammed and his followers when the Prophet took a stick and pointed to the ground, “There is not one among you whose sitting place is not written by God, whether in fire or in paradise.” From this tradition, the Islamic faith teaches that all things in life are predestined and that every person’s fate has been decreed by Allah. While this fatalism creates a dignified resignation to life’s hardships for many Muslims, I have fought against this pessimistic inertia throughout my life, and I cannot accept the tragic lives lived by so many Saudi women as the preordained will of Allah.
So when I learned that a dreadful piece of our family history was about to be repeated, I knew that I could never just fatalistically accept a horrifying and shameful destiny being assigned to one of my nieces.