RESEARCH PAPER

SUB - ENGLISH
TITLE - WOMANEXPLOITATION IN SAUDI
ARABIA IN JEAN P. SASSONS PRINCESS

BY - SUNIL P. GAIKWAD

DESIGNATION : ASST. TEACHER

NEW HIGHSCHOOL, GANGAPUR

DIST.- AURANGABAD

MOBILE NO. : 7588096538

E_Mail : varadsanket_69@rediff.com

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 RESEARCH PAPER
WOMAN EXPLOITATION IN SAUDI ARABIA IN JEAN P.
SASSONS PRINCESS
BY- SUNIL P. GAIKWAD
NEW HIGHSCHOOL, GANGAPUR
DIST.- AURANGABAD
ABSTRACT :

Exploitation of women is a matter of great concern in Islamic countries.

Women are considered inferior to men in the society and the formal law. They have to

adopt the traditional values. Even the formal law cannot permit them to change their

traditional attitudes. In Saudi Arabia, women have no freedom, respect or identity of their

own. They cannot vote or be elected to high political positions. It is the only country in the

world where women are not permitted to drive a car or she is murdered for chatting with a

man on facebook.

The idea of Exploitation of a woman is explored in Jean P. Sassons Non-

Fiction book Princess (1993), through Sulatana, the protagonist of the story. Even the
modern world revolution of women, human rights and western cultures have not brought any
respite to the women of Saudi Arabia.

PRELIMINARIES :

The research paper is an attempt to study the status of woman in Saudi

Arabia through the character of Princess. Beyond the veils of women there is a secret

society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money and power reign supreme.

Sasson tells appalling oppression and exploitations of women occurred

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everyday that would be hardly seen in any other culture. Woman is treated like a prisoner

in her own country. They are confined with neither light nor conversation until death

claims them.

TERMS :

a) Exploitation :

This term is commonly associated with the treatment. The term is

described in Macmillian dictionary as follows,

Unfair treatment of someone or the use of situation in

a way that is wrong in order to get some benefit for yourself.

[ www.macmilliandictionary.com]

b) Saudi Arabia :

Saudi Arabia is a Islamic country, the birthplace of Islam and home to

Islams two holiest shrine in Mecca and Medina. The Saudi government continues to treat
women as minors.

MAJOR THEME :

Sultana is the Saudi Arabian princess, born in a wealthy family.

Despite of her richness, she is bound by a strict society. She lifts the veil and reveals a

history of appalling oppression and human rights violations such as forced marriage and

sex slavery. She defines women as nothing but the vessels for sexual relief and a breeder

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of children. Her story unveils many horrible incidents of women in Saudi Arabia.

Exploitation of Women in Saudi Arabia :

The story of the Princess begins with the slapping of Ali to his sister,
Sultana for refusing to hand over the apple, she was given by the Pakistani cook. She was
punished to teach that men were her Masters. At an early stage she realized that,

All women learn at an early age to manipulate rather than

to comfort. I first become aware that I was a female who

was shackled by males unburdened by consciences.

[ Sasson, Jean P. : 26,27 ]

Her mother also accepted the fact that they had been born on the land

where women are considered low. They have no right to get education as their male

counterpart. Women are ruled by male dominated society. A Saudi father and husband

has complete control over a womans life. On her sister Saras divorce she said,

Islam gives the right of divorce to men, without any question

of motive. Yet it is very difficult for a woman to divorce her

husband.

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 [ Ibid : 66 ]

Only men have the right to take final decision on marriage and divorce. The

feelings of Sara was not considered. She had to come to her fathers home. Sultana gives a

horrifying picture of women of her country. Her country does not maintain the records of

female, but male children are documented in family. While reading the book the reader

discovers the picture of woman from the words of Sultana,

The History of our women is buried behind the black veil

of secrecy. Neither our births nor our deaths are made

official in any public record. The common emotion

expressed at the birth of a female is either sorrow or

shame.

[ Ibid : 22 }

These lines bring the whole theme of the non-entity of women. It leads us

to much more shocking crimes against women are not considered to be crimes in Saudi

Arabian society

Sultana described a family holiday to Egypt in which she returned to the

rented villa one day and found that her brother was raping an eight year old girl. When she

complained to her aunt and uncle, they ignored the event as a bit of harmless boyish fun.

Sultana hated Kareem when he asked her permission for second marriage.

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She left him for some days to teach him a lesson, but at last they had to settle in a good

relationship bound by custom, tradition and mutual love of their children. She regrets that
their love never fully revived after the incident of the second wife of Kareem. But she had

a hope that there would be a celebration of life in the society, when its women were free to

live without fear.

OTHER INCIDENTS OF EXPLOITATIONS :

The Princess depicts that even the women from the royal families are

beaten, executed and enslaved by their father, husband and brothers. The story of Nadia,

who was drowned in the family pool by her father for engaging wild sexual behavior with

non-Saudi. Sultanas sister Sara, who attempted suicide after being sold as a wife to a sick
and sexually brutal elderly man,

Madeline a Filipino woman, who came to Saudi Arabia to take a job of

working as a housekeeper in a private home. There she learnt her duties included

providing daily sexual release to her employer and his two sons. When she is found

pregnant, she was stoned to death. No one came forward to save her life.

Amal, the friend of Sultana was raped by her brothers friends in her own

house. To save her brother for using drugs, no family member dared to save her life. She was
killed to protect the honor of family.

Sameera, a young woman had to pay the price to love Larry. Her husband

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divorced her by saying that she was no longer pure. She came to her fathers home. She

had been sentenced to the womans room, a particularly cruel punishment. A special room
was a kind of prison for her. She remained for many years and had gone mad.

These stories show how these courageous women can survive in this kind

of life. There are many horrifying incidents depicted by Sultana. She remembered a woman
of a small village, who was found guilty of adultery. She was condemned to die

by stoning a large crowd, gathered and hurled stones at the woman. The stones continued

to thud against her body till the doctor pronounced her dead.

On female inequality and the condition of women, Sultana said,

We women are vassals and the walls of our prisons are

unscalable for this grotesque disease of pre-eminence lives

in the sperm of all men and is passed along, generation to

generation - a deadly incurable disease whose host is male

and victim is female.

[ Ibid : 140 ]

Saudi women are often forced to suffer a circumcision as young girls and are
married after they begin menstruating. They have to cover all her skin in the presence of men,
A Saudi woman cannot work or drive, so they are strictly reliant upon men.

CONCLUSIONS :

Jean P. Sasson tells us the true story of Saudi Arabian women through a

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Princes, Sultana, who is helpless and exploited by male dominated society. She describes

the woman, beaten and sexually harassed by this society.

The issues like honor killings, sexual slavery, arrange marriages and

mutilations of female genitals, all brings the horror and the kind of exploitation that still

exist today. Wont it be fair to say that every human being male or female has the right to

lead a life of dignity?

WORK CITED

1 Sasson, Jean P., 1993, Princess, Batham Book, Great Britain.

2 www.macmilliandictionary.com as on 3/1/2013

3 http://www.independent.org/publications/tir_11_02_06_cohen.pdf

as on 28/12/2012

4 http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saudiarabia/factbook

as on 3/1/2013

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 RESUME

NAME SUNIL P. GAIKWAD

DATE OF BIRTH 01st February 1969

DESIGNATION Asst. Teacher

QUALIFICATION M.A. M.PHIL. B.ED.

M.PHIL. THESIS TITLE - The Problems in Teaching and Learning

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 Guided Composition at Secondary Level

EXPERIENCE - teaches English for 20 years in M.S.P.

Mandals New High school, Gangapur.

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