I guess all that was forced by her hopelessness for an alteration on her culture, which she realised was impossible. Because of her strong personality, will and intelligence (that also gave her troubles sometimes), Sultana and her friends had the chance to do many things that other Saudi girls wouldn’t even dare to think about. Ali got his punishments from their father plus the mosque elders for the shameful magazines, but he also got a new Rolex to replace the broken one.Įven though Sultana also experienced her father discrimination, Sultana may be luckier than any other Saudi women. Once, Sultana got the chance to revenge her ill-charactered brother by crushing his new-given Rolex from their father and placing his pornography magazines at the mosque the kind of move that is quite aggressive and impossible to think of for other Saudi girls. He has no feeling when hurting his own sisters, and his friends even more evil than him. Ali was treated like a small king in the house, thus his personality had grown to be ill-mannered and extremely selfish.

Sultana used to feel jealous with her father treatment towards Ali, her brother. People should read the book to understand how much money involved in one Saudi family, especially in a prince family like Sultana’s father. Sultana didn’t do this for money, she is a Saudi princess. It is very much understandable if we end up with some sort of ‘opinions’ about the culture, the people, after reading the book. It was quite hard even for me to not being judgmental, but I am sure the motive for Sultana to share her stories with Sasson is to let the world know about the inner-side of her country, her kingdom, and perhaps she was seeking for help. Readers of the book must be open-minded when reading the book, because there are plenty of human rights issues that may cause controversies, while the story itself was based on real characters of a real culture. While being caged in luxurious mansions and covered in expensive veils and robes, their life and destiny are controlled by their fathers, their husbands even their sons. Saudi women are valueless in their society. Women position is lower than men in Saudi Arabia which applies Islam full laws. Don’t expect that her life would be similar with princesses from other kingdoms that we usually see on the celebrity gossip magazines. Sultana is just one of the many grandchildren the King has from many children, from many wives.

Being the granddaughter of the King doesn’t necessarily mean she has a close relationship with the King, apart from bloodline.

Her grandfather is King Saud, whose father was the Great King Abdul Aziz. Sultana Al’Saud is one of the many Saudi princesses.

Princess behind the veil