In Jean P. Sasson’s book Princess, Sultana Al Sa’ud of Saudi Arabia is not the stereotypical daughter of Arab royalty. Right away, Sasson, an American who lived in Riyadh for many years and a long-time friend of the Princess, shows us how important honor and image are in the villages of Arabia as well as in the villas of the royal residential district.

            Sasson describes Sultana, the youngest of ten daughters, as strong-willed and as unruly as her tight curls. Unlike her sisters, Sultana rebels against the suffocating Muslim customs bestowed on the women of her culture. Ruled by the verses of the Koran, Arab women, royal or otherwise, are the property of their fathers and then their husbands. Sultana challenges everyone and every custom that restricts women to a life of second-class citizenship.

             Not only does Sasson explore the Arabian culture, she reveals the lives and beliefs of poor Arab Bedouins as well as the royals’ Sudanese and Filipino house staff. As readers, we even get a glimpse into their palaces and their perception of foreigners, American and otherwise.

             We witness Sultana’s exposure to Arabia’s poor value of women in the raping of young girls and the drowning and stoning of disobedient women who do not uphold the ideals attributed to the Koran and the Prophet Mohammad.

             In a land of arranged marriages, polygamy, blinding veils and oil riches, Sultana resists the lessons of her elders who try to impress upon her the purpose of women, which is to provide sexual pleasure and bare sons to their husbands. They stress that Arab women must accept their circumstances and their place in the Prophet’s law. It is only through the occasional subtle manipulation that women can temporarily alter their outcomes.

             In a land where double standards run rampant, Sultana manages to find real love in her arranged marriage instead of a marital arrangement designed for male convenience. However, the love is lost due to her refusal to accept Muslim marital customs and her husband’s inability to forgo those same customs that jeopardize their fairytale.

            Princess‘ anticlimactic end reveals that one person can change the course of his or her own life but cannot solely redirect the customs that have ruled a land for hundreds of years.

            In my commitment to exploring all that is multicultural, I wanted to draw attention to other cultures we may not understand.  Princess, published in 1993, was a fast-paced and enlightening read. In one of the scenes, an aunt who was also a palm reader predicts that in adulthood Sultana would bring tremendous joy and pain to her family through eruptive acts due to her unyielding nature. While many of her actions were a deep affront to what is customary, the author either left out or tempered down the most eruptive events. As a result, I found myself still waiting for the height of Sultana’s challenges at the book’s end. For that I give this book 4/5 sable seals of approval.