Rating: 
Summary: UNBELIEVABLE YET TRUE!
Review: Having lived in Saudi Arabia for five years, I applaud Ms. Sasson for having written about the position of women in that society. In my work, I had contact with Saudis - both men and women - together and separately. There are few western women there and even fewer that have contact with Saudi women and families. This is the only explanation I can give for the reviewers that claim to 'know better'. I can even understand some Saudi women denying the truth of this story to avoid being ashamed of their culture. In Saudi Arabia women have very little freedom and are often abused. Princess is well written and very enlightening for Westerners. I have recommended the book to friends, who always express disbelief. This book is sad, scary, and unbelievable. But it surely is the true story of one woman's life and should be read by one and all. The world needs to know!Islam has nothing to do with the Saudi's treatment of women. This is cultural, not religious, practice. The story of Sultana's children continue to bring the horror of this system into focus for the rest of the world. I hope there will be more! Bravo, Ms. Sasson!
Rating:
Summary: A Women's Rights Must-Read
Review: In the course of the true life stories found in the book Princess, by Jean P. Sasson, the reader becomes enveloped in the terrible and heart-wrenching lifestyles of middle-eastern women. Through the course of the narrative, though horrifying stories are related in a truly eye-opening manner, the reader discovers a true slice of Princess Sultana's imaginative and vivacious personality, and weeps as it slowly becomes lost in the process of womanhood in Saudi Arabia. "The history of our women is buried behind the black veil of secrecy. Neither our births or deaths are made official in any public record. The common emotion expressed at the birth of a female is either sorrow or shame." These few sentences, which bring about the whole theme of the non-entity of women, lead us to much more shocking crimes against women which, in that society, are not considered to be crimes whatsoever. The stories of Nadia, who was drowned in the family pool by her father as a way of "protecting her honor", her sister Sara, who attempted suicide after being sold as a wife to a sick and sexually brutal elderly man, and a brave Filipino maid named Madeline, who was raped nightly by all the male members of the family she served under, illustrate how Jean Sasson was able to intertwine other supporting character's stories with the life of Princess Sultana effectively and believably. Some stories, which show how these incredibly courageous women, can survive in this kind of life, bring the reader to cry and cheer simultaneously. Others, which, sadly, lack the happy ending we could hope for, are gut-wrenching due to the fact that they are horribly true. Behind the black veil of the Muslim women lie incredibly diverse personalities, characters, and spirits, which come alive to us through the voice of Sultana. I admired how the life of one woman, who lived a lifestyle vastly different from those of her readers, could showcase such a passion for life that I was able to relate to her and her stories. While listening to her descriptions of daily crimes against others like her and her description of her feelings of powerlessness, causes the reader to have feelings of injustice stir within them. During the episode where Sultana finally uses her ingenuity to it's potential and manages to flee her country and abusive husband, you are able to applaud her efforts and cheer her on. Overall, this book becomes a touching experience for most, if not all, who read it. Through the coldheartedness of males such as Ali, her brother, and her father, it is a miracle that Sultana manages to respect members of the male race when it is entirely obvious that they have little, if any, respect for her. "I waited for my destiny to unfold, a child as helpless as an insect trapped in a wicked web not of it's own making." Although this statement was Sultana's, it translates the general feeling of oppression hidden behind the black veil in the middle east. Indeed, these words could have been spoken by nearly every female character in the book, because they all, at one point in time, are overcome with the feeling of helplessness and realize that there is not one person who can deliver them from whatever circumstance they are in, because they are all suppressed by the male race. The men are nearly all, with the exception of King Faisal, portrayed as the iron fist in the velvet glove. Their views of women, and how they make their opinions clear, is extraordinarily chilling and saddening. The dignity, the souls, and occasionally, the lives of these women are lost throughout the course of the book. The issues that are addressed, such as honor killings, sexual slavery, arranged marriages, and female genital mutilation, all bring to mind the horrors that still exist today. In conclusion, although this is first of all a must-read for anyone with an interest in human rights and women's rights, I would strongly recommend it to anyone. It touches the heart and stirs the soul so that the reader cannot help but be moved by the stories of these women. Hopefully, with this book's publication, the fact that Sultana risked her life to allow her story to be heard will not have gone in vain.
Rating: 
Summary: Readers beware
Review: As an Egyptian descendant myself I am insulted that the Western readers of this book mistake its happenings for something that is a general rule in the entire Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a very special case in Human Rights. While the rest of the Middle East may not be the perfect example of Human Rights either, their problems are not as intense, even by the accounts of the character herself. I lived in the nearby UAE for 17 years and women and expatriates there are treated with much more respect than notorious Saudi Arabia. With much skepticism, I was curious enough to read this book which is banned in the Persian Gulf. If you research further you would conclude that Princess Sultana only exists in the mind of Jean Sasson for it is unlikely that any Saudi woman, let alone a Royal, with family ties to her country would reveal such a story, let alone 2 sequels, unless she was in exile. Also, it is very unlikely that a Western woman would get to know or befriend a female member of the Royal family on such an intimate level, especially if she is not known to have worked for them. However, I tend to believe about 65% of these stories for I have met Saudi men myself and they have never failed to fascinate me with their incredibly distorted view of women. Who knows whether there have been women really killed or kept in solitary confinement for years by their own flesh and blood for fornication in the 20th century or did the writer aim to keep the book sales high? I would think twice before I believe it.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my gosh!
Review: What a hard story to read! Princess Sultana's life is nothing like a the life of the Princesses of Britain. I knew that women in Saudi Arabia were completely veiled and that they were considered possesions of men there but I did not know to what extreme life is like there! The scariest part is that this book was published in 2001! This is not a story of life in Saudi Arabia a long time ago, it is what is happening there NOW. Not enough people realize what life is like in some countries and it's our ignorance that is helping to keep these countries the way they are. This story is Book I of the Princess Triologies, the other two being Princess Sultana's Daughters and Princess Sultana's Circle. I can't get a hold of these sequals fast enough, that's how much I 'enjoyed' this book. Enjoyed really isn't the right word as how can you enjoy reading about such horrible treatement of women! It is important to understand that while Saudi Arabia is 100% Islamic, most of what is happening is not actually a part of the Islmaic Religion but is a twisted version of the Koran and convenient ignoring of some parts of it. Jean Sasson includes some passage from the Koran on women in the back of this book and while some of it seems barbaric to Westeners, a lot of what goes on in Saudi Arabia and other countries is NOT supported by the Koran. This book is not an attack on Islam. I could talk about this book for hours and you would still be suprised and horrified when reading it. I could not prepare you for this book without actually typing the whole thing out. I highly recommend this book although only to adults. There may be some younger people who could handle this but I'm 20 and I believe well educated and this was hard for me to digest.
Rating:
Summary: Heart wrenching!
Review: This book is totally spellbinding. From the moment I started reading the book until the last page read, I felt pain and sorrow not only for Sultana, who was born in raised in total opulence, but for all the women in her country. The treatment women get in her country is totally horrendous, and dehuminzing (too horrible to believe it's real), but sadly enough, it is. It is hard for me to fathom how men believe that women aren't humans at all. They're used for two things, and two things alone; appease the man's sexual desire, and bear "sons." For anybody who's interested in women's right and equal treatment, this book is a must read. Read it with an open heart, and weep along with Sultana in her journey through "existenceless." You'll be appalled at the fact that female births aren't recorded, and their deaths go unannounced. They're buried in the desert in unmarked graves. Mere girls are drowned in pools, stoned to death, put in isolation for the rest of their lives, flogged, shot. When will the atrocity end?
Rating:
Summary: STUNNING REVELATION OF ABUSE OF WOMEN IN SAUDI ARABIA
Review: Sultana's story is amazing, sad, and shocking. She paints a picture of living in incredible wealth and opulence, never having to work, always surrounded by servants, the table overflowing with expensive imported food. And yet, the conditions of her life are far worse than any working girl in America. Sultana is a princess of the royal house of Saud, yet her life -- and the life of all Saudi women -- is totally controlled by men. Saudi women are mere possessions of men, with no rights. In Saudi Arabia, women's births and deaths are not recorded. Their fathers and later their husbands can have them killed or locked up forever in dark and solitary confinement for behavior that is considered ordinary in most other cultures. As I read her story, it occurred to me that women in Saudi Arabia have the same position in their society as pets have in mine. Many people love their pets and lavish them with affection and good care. The same is true of Saudi men's behavior toward their wives and daughters, but, like our relationship with our pets, the men can really do what they want. If someone kills their pet, there is usually no consequence unless it was done in a cruel manner. But a woman who has been raped through no fault of her own (as happens in one of Sultana's stories) can be put to death for "lewd behavior" and the type of death does not even have to be humane. One of Sultana's friends was drowned in a swimming pool by her father, and another was confined to a "women's room" (no light or human contact) til her death. Sultana is spunkier than most, actually tricking her husband and escaping with her children to London when he tells her he is taking a second wife. Oh yes, let's don't forget that abuse! Men can have multiple wives, and girls can be married off, often to old men, as soon as their periods begin. Most have no chance for an education, nor can they reject the husband selected by their father. And of course, they must be constantly covered from head to foot with an ugly black garment. I found the descriptions of Saudi society most unappealing. We have here a people who do no work and retain for themselves obscene amounts of wealth, with which they do little but build huge palaces mostly decorated in poor taste. I wonder if Sultana could even survive as an American who might have to clean her own house, cook her own food, and work for a living. That would be a big change from having five palaces and three Lear Jets! The men usually don't bother to work either; they live off the oil money. For a story eerily similar to Princess where the heroine actually does flee her homeland and become a working American, I recommend Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi. It's fiction, but the situations are very much alike, with Mirage also featuring a wealthy Muslim woman oppressed by men, but finally making her escape. That book, like Princess, is a stunner. I know it's not politically correct to bring up the role of Islam in this abusive behavior, but religion is the justification for the Saudi treatment of women, and the verses form the Koran in the back of the book make it clear that Islam recommends harsh treatment of women in many circumstances. Certainly the Saudis carry it to extremes, but Islam is no friend of females. Neither is Christianity or Judaism, which are both male-centered, but I know of no nation that tops Saudi Arabia for abuse of women.
Rating:
Summary: The Princess Series
Review: I have read all three of Jean Sasson's books about Princess Sultana and her family. Princess is an incredible book, it is the true story of a young Saudi princess, growing up in a family of many daughters and one son. The story is facinating, not only because of the incredibly brave character Sultana is, but
because on the "outside", she lives in an incredibly rich society, yet is deprived of simple things that Westerners take for granted, such as the ability to drive and to walk down the street without the restriction of a veil and cloak.
You will absolutely love Princess, as Sultana is a very brave, bold person in a country which frowns upon assertive women. She provides a true account of some of women's sufferings in Saudi Arabia, including public stoning, their husbands' desire for multiple wives and one Saudi woman's life sentence to "the woman's room" for seeing an Amercian man. Sultana has a wicked, impulsive personality which makes her a very endearing character.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tragic, but Necessary Read
Review: I'm a sixteen year old girl living in Vancouver, who happened to live in the UAE for two years. This book was banned there, so naturally I was curious about it, and when I came home to Canada, I had to read it.
Reading some of the reviews here, it is disheartening to me, how many people dismiss the story as lies, or in the very least, dismiss the existence of such a character alltogether. A friend of our families works for the ruler of Saudi, and as such, knew Princess Sultana (obviously not her real name.) Her brother was indeed the one who discovered it was she who had written the books, and she was in exile at the time. He invited her back, under the idea of a truce, and she was stoned to death. This is no fictional account.
As for the book itself, it is a shocking eye opener. I was lucky enough to experience the much more equality-embracing United Arab Emirates, and as such, the story of Sultana was every bit as foreign to me as it would have been to my Canadian raised friends.
One drawback of the book I'm sure, is that many people will assume this is the way it is everywhere in the Middle East, and indeed that it is part of the Muslim religion, which is certainly not true. The Muslim religion is peaceful and anyone who tells you otherwise, is not learned in the religion itself. The Middle East may be backward to many Westerns way of thinking, but anyone who reads, please know that Saudi is a grave exception. It is in no way a representative for the rest of the Middle East, but I fear that many western readers will assume this.
I strongly recommend this book, as the plight of women in Saudi has gone silent for too long, but I also STRONGLY recommend background reading, and a study of the middle east in general, to go along with it.
Rating:
Summary: Readers beware
Review: Remember what you are about to read is far from a literary materpiece but more a bunch of urban legends put together. As an Egyptian descendant myself I am insulted that the Western readers of this book mistake its happenings for something that is a general rule in the entire Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a very special case in Human Rights. While the rest of the Middle East may not be the perfect example of Human Rights either, their problems are not as intense, even by the accounts of the character herself. I lived in the nearby UAE for 17 years and women and expatriates there are treated with much more respect than notorious Saudi Arabia. With much skepticism, I was curious enough to read this book which is banned in the Persian Gulf. If you research further you would conclude that Princess Sultana only exists in the mind of Jean Sasson for it is unlikely that any Saudi woman, especially a Royal with family ties to her country would reveal such a story, let alone 2 sequels, unless she was in exile. Also, it is very unlikely that an American woman would get to know or befriend a female member of the Royal family on such an intimate level, especially if she is not known to have worked for them. However, I tend to believe about 65% of these stories for I have met Saudi men myself and they have never failed to fascinate me with their incredibly distorted view of women. Who knows whether there have been women really killed or kept in solitary confinement for years by their own flesh and blood for fornication in the 20th century or did the writer aim to keep the book sales high? I would think twice before I believe it.
Rating:
Summary: highly recommended
Review: I can accept this as true, because even tho Princess Sultana finds much that is disturbing about her culture, she also manages to show people how there is good about her culture and her faith. She IS Moslem, and she does not apologize for it. She tries to make it quite clear that it is not ISLAM that is to blame for the horrors of what goes on in her country, but it is the CULTURE that existed long before Muhammed gave them the Qu'ran, and that the powers that be have twisted the Qu'ran to suit their own depravity. She shows that there ARE some men in Arabia who DO love their wives and do NOT like the horrors but that they, too, are powerless, either by design or ennui or whatever. But mostly, it is a tale of helplessness to do anything, even tho she is one of the richest women in the world, at least as far as money goes. It is the classic tale of the poor little rich girls.
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