24-year-old Rajaa Al Sanie
In her first book, Al Sanie lifts the curtain off the secret society of Saudi girls, exposing a new image of a community that has always pretended to be the beacon of modesty and Islamic morality.
"Everybody resents my daring writings and blames me for broaching taboo subjects we are not accustomed to discussing openly, especially given the fact that I am a young girl. But is there not always a first time? Did anyone imagine that pacifist preacher Martin Luther King would be able to emancipate the blacks from racial segregation? I may face the same problems as King, who was imprisoned half a century ago at the beginning of his struggle against the wrong beliefs of his society," says the author of a novel that has whipped up a storm of controversy since its publication.
The book was first published by a Lebanese publishing house in September 2005. In less than four months, it went into its third printing. According to Al Sanie, English and French translations of her novel are expected to come out late this year.
Several observers have wondered how Al Sanie managed to get away with her work in such a conservative society without being harassed.
"On the contrary, I was never harassed. In fact, every day I receive many calls and e-mails from people who thank me for being able to connect to reality in a society shrouded in mystery. It has shed light on an important aspect of the society and created an important dialogue that hopefully will result in a fruitful outcome," says Al Sanie.
For the same observers, the fact that Al Sanie has not faced any harassment so far shows that a genuine change toward openness must be emerging in a society deemed closed for centuries.
Al Sanie, a recent graduate of the College of Dentistry at Riyadh?s King Saud University, explains that her novel is based on real observations she made at college.
"When I enrolled in university, I heard stories and learned about many events that made me choose them as a subject for my novel," the author says. "I chose, however, four fictitious characters from the different regions of Saudi and narrated the stories through them."
Al Sanie is quick to remind people that the book is a novel - a work of fiction. "I hate to disappoint you but the characters in the book are not my friends," Al-Sanea said. "The novel is based on events I've heard about; they have added authenticity to the novel."
She considers herself an author, not a firebrand. "I am just a member of this society who is giving the reader a chance to look through my small window and share the same scene with me," she said. "Any successful work should have a creative idea behind it, and I do believe the issue is not to write about different aspects of society, but to catch a creative idea and put it on paper."
Many of Al Sanie's critics sum up their opposition to the book in this way: "It is our tradition not to talk about the ills of our society. We know there are problems in our society, but the general reaction is to keep quiet. We have been taught from an early age that if we talk about the ills of our society, people will laugh at us. We are seen as role models in the Muslim world. And even when we are not entirely perfect, we should pretend that we are."
"I want to draw the attention to one important point: the work shattered an idealistic and imaginary figment that existed in the minds of those who criticized the novel: an inhumane image that does not compare to our reality. Such individuals lack the sense of what literature means," Al Sanie contends.
"What I crossed were merely social taboos, not religious ones. This is a very important clarification. There is a difference between time-honoured traditions that cannot survive our modern times and those eternal values upheld by religion."
Al Sanie herself claims her novel is a critique of traditions, not Shariah.
"I respect my religion. I am a faithful Muslim and proud of it. Shariah is an important part of Islam that should be respected," Al Sanie says, "but there is confusion here. What the novel speaks about are traditions that are not part of our Shariah and have simply hampered our way of life to the point that they have resulted in the misery and suffering of people in our society."
Synopsis
The heroine of the novel is an anonymous young Saudi girl who created an e-mail list and sent weekly letters to Saudi internet users over the course of six years, recounting the love stories of four friends, all of them members of the Saudi aristocracy. Early in the book, the author shocks the reader with an exotic picture of an underground society where girls drink champagne, dress like men and drive around dating guys in a country where women are forbidden from holding driving licenses, let alone mixing with the opposite sex in public.
"Banat Al-Riyadh" examines the lives of four Saudi girls: Sadeem, Qamrah, Lamees and Mashael (her name is similar to Michelle in pronunciation. She is half Saudi and half American. Her American mother and friends prefer to call her Michelle). All four are students at a university in Riyadh.
According to one Saudi female columnist, there are in fact five women instead of four. "Everyone seems to forget the narrator," she wrote. The narrator is unidentified, except that she is in her early 20s. She is a modern Scheherazade who tells the stories of the girls' weekends. Her motivation is to end society's tyranny over her friends.
The four girls are bound by a strong friendship despite many differences. Each one of them experiences failures except Lamees who succeeds in both her professional and personal life.
Lamees is the group's fortune-teller. She always is consulted by her friends about future matches and emotional relationships. At one point in the novel, she ends her friendship with Fatima because she is a Shia, and Lamees is a Sunni. Lamees likes Fatima's brother who is studying medicine, but the relationship ends abruptly after they are caught in a café by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. (Dating is not allowed in Saudi Arabia and is an offence punishable by the Religious Police.) Fatima?s brother suffers in the hands of the Religious Police and his suffering is compounded since he is a Shiite.
Lamees has a kind heart and helps her friends in resolving their problems. She supports them in times of need. For example, she teaches Qamrah, who has been ill-treated by society, how to use the Internet, send e-mails and to chat online so that she can come out of the isolated world she finds herself in. Qamrah is a divorcee with a baby.
Qamrah's story is typical. She married Rashid after an arranged meeting at which the two families allowed the prospective husband to see the girl once to decide whether he liked her. There was no exchange of ideas or thoughts. "See the girl once and make up your mind." Qamrah also had the same chance to see the man and give her opinion. Since they both agreed, their families proceeded with the marriage. After marriage, the two go to Chicago so that Rashid can finish his postgraduate studies. The novel discusses their marital discord.
Rashid forces her to give up her hijab. And she does so in the hope of winning his heart. But when he sees her without hijab he thinks she looks ugly. He asks her to wear the hijab again to hide her ugliness. Qamrah loves Rashid despite all his cruelty. Matters come to a head when she learns of Rashid's betrayal. He has a mistress: A Japanese-American woman. When she confronts him, he shocks her with the truth that his parents refused to let him marry his Japanese-American girlfriend and forced him to marry a Saudi girl instead. Qamrah is seething with the desire for revenge. She stops taking her contraceptive pills and becomes pregnant.
When Rashed finds out that she is pregnant, he slaps her and sends her back to Riyadh. He then sends divorce papers and she becomes a single parent. She lives at her father's house completely isolated. Her family members prevent her from going out. They fear she will stain the family name and honour if she goes out but her friends nonetheless manage to get her out from time to time.
Sadeem's story is no less tragic. She is raised by her father because her mother dies soon after giving birth to her. She loses her first love and then her second. Her first tragedy is caused by Walid when he deserts her after a few months of marriage. She gives herself to him one night considering that he is her husband even though the wedding party had not taken place yet. Walid disappears and is never seen again. He eventually sends divorce papers which come as a shock; she blames herself because she did not wait until after the wedding reception. Sadeem never tells her family about what happened. She believes Walid divorced her because he thought she was girl with loose morals.
(In the Saudi world, engagement norms are different from those in the West. The man and woman are considered officially married when their marital vows are exchanged and the documents signed. However, the period from the time of signing the documents till the night of the wedding party is the engagement period. There is nothing in Islam to prevent them from having sex before that night as they are officially wed, but to do so is considered a mistake by society and men may get the impression that the girl is too easy or that she has had a premarital relationship.)
Sadeem's second tragedy is caused by Firas. She meets him in London while recovering from her first tragedy. She falls in love with him and he with her. But the fact that he has never been married prevents him from marrying a divorcee. Firas then marries one of his relatives and later calls Sadeem and offers to continue the relationship without leaving his wife. Sadeem refuses. Her suffering increases as Firas continues to call her. She finally decides to forget all about him and she is left with no choice but to marry her cousin Tarik. (Consanguineous marriages are discouraged by Islam but are not prohibited. In a society that separates men from women in all social gatherings, there is no chance to see a woman except those who are relatives which is another reason why consanguineous marriages make up a big share of all marriages in Saudi Arabia.) She never wanted to marry him even though Tarik had strong feelings for her.
Mashael is more realistic and more liberal. Compared to her friends, she has had more freedom. She was born to a Saudi father and an American mother. One day, she meets Faisal when he asks her and her girlfriends to allow him to enter the shopping mall with them as a brother. (Single young men are not allowed to enter big shopping malls in order to prevent them from flirting with women.) This brief encounter is the start of mutual love.
Their attraction lasts a year, and when Mashael asks Faisal to marry her, he refuses since his mother will not allow him to marry a girl who was not chosen by his family. On top of that, there are objections to Mashael's American mother. The upshot is that Mashael loses her faith in men and travels to San Francisco to study with an American cousin. They are attracted to one another, but things never progress to love. Faced with this confusing relationship, she travels back to Riyadh. Her father decides to move the whole family to Dubai in order to escape the gossip about Mashael as well as what has become her bad reputation.
In Dubai, Mashael works for a satellite TV channel. She succeeds in her work and lives freely. She admires a TV director who works with her, but she remains confused about whether she loves him. She asks her father if he will allow her to appear on TV as there is an opening for a TV presenter, but he refuses and convinces her that her appearance on TV would lead to problems in Saudi Arabia and with his family.
The novel has one encouraging story and that is the marriage of Lamees to the man she has chosen, a colleague in Medical School. It seems that Lamees learns from the mistakes of her friends and never repeats them. In fact, she formulates a strategy to win her colleague's heart after falling in love with him at first sight. She uses everything to make the relationship succeed. Her plans culminate in a happy marriage and a trip to Canada to study postgraduate medicine.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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