As someone whose family has lived in Arabia for centuries, she can give an authentic insider view of her experience, and the experiences of her sisters, cousins, and friends. She presents evidence which makes it clear that Saudi women are utterly controlled, first by their fathers, and ten later by their husbands. She writes:
This absolute control over the female has nothing to do with love, only with fear of the male’s tarnished honor.
For readers in other societies — Europe, Australia, the Americas, etc. — she offers data which are shocking and counterintuitive. Saudi men are legally allowed to kill their wives or daughters if those women have done something which the men consider to be dishonorable. The Saudi man is prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner — all in one. There is no defender.
The authority of a Saudi male is unlimited; his wife and children survive only if he desires. In our homes, he is the state. This complex situation begins with the rearing of our young boys. From an early age, the male child is taught that women are of little value: They exist only for his comfort and convenience. The child witnesses the disdain shown his mother and sisters by his father; this open contempt leads to his scorn of all females, and makes it impossible for him to enjoy friendship with anyone of the opposite sex. Taught only the role of master to slave, it is little wonder that by the time he is old enough to take a mate, he considers her his chattel, not his partner.
Women are considered as property, a notion which settles comfortably in the minds of Saudis, who didn’t abolish slavery until 1962, and whose current system of permanent servitude for foreign born domestic workers differs little from slavery.
The double standard is clearly enshrined in Saudi society: men are allowed as many wives as they want and adulterous relationships are permitted, as are the men’s visits to brothels.
On the other hand, women will suffer punishment or even death for merely speaking casually to any man who is not an immediate family member.
This dysfunctional society warps and distorts every human relationship, as our anonymous author explains:
And so it comes to be that women in my land are ignored by their fathers, scorned by their brothers, and abused by their husbands. This cycle is difficult to break, for the men who impose this life upon their women ensure their own marital unhappiness. For what man can be truly content surrounded by such misery? It is evident that the men of my land are searching for gratification by taking one wife after the other, followed by mistress after mistress. Little do these men know that their happiness can be found in their own home, with one woman of equality. By treating women as slaves, as property, men have made themselves as unhappy as the women they rule, and have made love and true companionship unattainable to both sexes.
Even the official paperwork of the Saudi government codifies the inferior status of women:
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. Although births of male children are documented in family or tribal records, none are maintained anywhere for females. The common emotion expressed at the birth of a female is either sorrow or shame. Although hospital births and government record keeping are increasing, the majority of rural births take place at home. No country census is maintained by the government of Saudi Arabia.
Women in Saudi Arabia need written permission from a male relative to travel or get married. The police can, and do, arrest women for wearing skirts which expose their calves.
It is difficult for readers in the ‘Western World’ to imagine the oppression under which Saudi women live. Even walking from home to a small shop a few blocks away is forbidden unless the girl or woman making this trip is accompanied by a male family member.
The publication of these experiences by Jean Sasson and the anonymous ‘Sultana’ has truly revolutionized the West’s understanding of Saudi Arabia.
