Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia Read Free Page A

strong
government controls over major economic activities. Saudi Arabia
has the largest reserves of petroleum in the world. The country
ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading
role in OPEC.
    ***
    BOOKS 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
    Princess Sultana’s Circle
    Mayada, Daughter of Iraq
    Love in a Torn Land: A Kurdish Woman’s
Story
    Growing up Bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son
Reveal their Secret World
    For the Love of a Son: One Afghan Woman’s
Quest for her Stolen Child
    --
    Historical Fiction:
    Ester’s Child
    --
    To learn more about author Jean Sasson and
the subjects of her books, log on to: www.jeansasson.com
     
    ***
    The story of Princess Sultana is true. While the
words are those of the author, the story is that of the Princess.
The shocking human tragedies described here are factual.
    Readers should know that names have been
changed and various events slightly altered to protect the
well-being of recognizable individuals.
    In telling this true story, it is not the
intention of the author or of the Princess to demean the Islamic
religion.
     

Introduction
    In a land where kings still rule, I am a
princess. You must know me only as Sultana. I cannot reveal my true
name for fear harm will come to me and my family for what I am
about to tell you. I am a Saudi princess, a member of the Royal
Family of the House of Al Sa’ud, the current rulers of the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia. As a woman in a land ruled by men, I cannot speak
directly to you. I have requested an American friend and writer,
Jean Sasson, to listen to me and then to tell my story. I was born
free, yet today I am in chains. Invisible, they were loosely draped
and passed unnoticed until the age of understanding reduced my life
to a narrow segment of fear. No memories are left to me of my first
four years. I suppose I laughed and played as all young children
do, blissfully unaware that my value, due to the absence of a male
organ, was of no significance in the land of my birth.
    To understand my life, you must know those
who came before me. We present-day Al Sa’uds date back six
generations to the days of the early emirs of the Nadj, the bedouin
lands now part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These first Al
Sa’uds were men whose dreams carried them no farther than the
conquest of nearby desert lands and the adventures of night raids
on neighboring tribes.
    In 1891, disaster struck when the Al Sa’ud
clan was defeated in battle and forced to flee the Nadj. Abdul
Aziz, who would one day be my grandfather, was a child at this
time. He barely survived the hardships of that desert flight.
Later, he would recall how he burned with shame as his father
ordered him to crawl into a large bag that was then slung over the
saddle horn of his camel. His sister, Nura, was cramped into
another bag hanging from the other side of their father’s camel.
Bitter that his youth prevented him from fighting to save his home,
the angry young man peered from the bag as he swayed with the gait
of the camel. It was a turning point in his young life, he would
later recall, as he, humiliated by his family’s defeat, watched the
haunting beauty of his homeland disappear from view.
    After two years of nomadic desert travel, the
family of Al Sa’uds found refuge in the country of Kuwait. The life
of a refugee was so distasteful to Abdul Aziz that he vowed from an
early age to recapture the desert sands he had once called home. So
it was that in September 1901, twenty-five-year-old Abdul Aziz
returned to our land. On January 16, 1902, after months of
hardship, he and his men soundly defeated his enemies, the
Rasheeds.
    In the years to follow, to ensure the loyalty
of the desert tribes, Abdul Aziz married more than three hundred
women, who in time produced more than fifty sons and eighty
daughters. The sons of his favorite wives held the honor