Girls of Riyadh

Another story that shocked the world especially the Middle East. A story that resembles like ancient Scheherazade stories in which she narrated unfinished stories every single night for one thousand and one nights. Similarly, this modern Scheherazade, a girl in her early twenties narrated the story of her four female friends every weekend after the Friday Pray. Both have similar motivation that is to reveal the tyranny of life and the society against women in their region. The King in Scheherazade’s world chosen his bride to be killed in the wedding night simply because her former queen had cheated on him. For this, all women in the whole kingdom should bear the penalty…the death sentence. While in girls of Riyadh, the narrator unfolded the cruelty of the strongly patriarch society that sometimes and often misused religious beliefs to justify their action towards women regardless of their social status. Each chapter in the book begins with a piece of poetry, a verse from the Quran, or lyrics from a famous song that captured the idea of the chapter.

The narrator revealed the stories of her four female friends namely Qamrah, Sadeem, Lumais and Mashael (whom was often called Michelle because her mother was American) who were studying in the University of Riyadh. They often hanged out and sought for advice in Um Nouri’s house. A woman of her late 30s that was left by her husband after years of marriage with her only son. Three had suffered much from the strongly patriarch values; thus failed them in love and career. The only one succeeded in both career and love was Lumais because he learnt from events that befell her three friends. She determined she would not fall in the same pit; their mistakes became a great valuable lesson for her.

Qamrah had to quit her study because she had an arranged marriage with Rashid. They never had any exchange of ideas, thought and dating. As customary in the region, the two families allowed the prospective husband to see the girl only once to decide whether he liked her or not and then if he did, he would marry her. Rashid expressed his fondness for her and vice versa so they soon got married. The newlywed went to Chicago because Rashid must finish his postgraduate studies in electronic commerce. It was total disaster for Qamrah as she gradually found out her husband true nature of character. He despised her for her hijab and thought her ugly with it. When she decided to let it go, her husband thought she was uglier without none. Although, financially Rashid gave every sum she needed, but his ignorance was unbearable as she was in a strange country with very different culture and custom. Worse, her English was poor. Later she found out the source of his ignorance with she accidently knew he had an affair with a Japanese American. Rashid told her that she loved this woman and she indebted greatly to her family for when he sought permission from his parents to marry her, they turned him down. This woman’s family was the one who supported his life and study when his parents sent him no more cash. Broken hearted, Qamrah sought revenge in not taking the birth control pills. She tought if she were pregnant, her husband might act differently. She was completely wrong. Rashid sent her back to her family with divorce letter thus left her all alone with the infant. She was trapped as society regarded a divorced woman as source of problem. The only consolation she got was her friends company and Um Nouri.

The same fate befell Sadeem. Her fiancé left her just months before the wedding party. Although, they were officially wed already, but customary tradition in the society forbad women to make husband and wife relationship before the wedding party took place. Sadeem, in uttering her love and affection, was willing to risk this by giving herself up to Walid before the party in hope that Walid would feel mutual love and affection towards her. She thought that her love was not complete before submitting all herself to him. She was wrong. With no clear reason, Walid deserted her after the night. Later on, his family canceled the wedding and sent her a divorced letter. Sadeem was broken hearted and regretted her foolish decision. She knew the reason of the cancelation because Walid thought she already had sexual engagement experience (in her region sex before wedding party was considered inappropriate although they were already officially wed). Her second love with Faraz ended up the same. Faraz’s elite social status plus the fact he had never married before prevented him to marry a divorced woman like Sadeem. Eventually, he married another woman without love. Being unhappy, he asked Sadeem to continue their lost relationship. In vengeance, instead of yielding to this request, Sadeem chose Tarik, her cousin that long had adored her.

Michelle story was not less tragic than the two. She was torn by two different culture and custom considering that she was half Arabian and half American. Unlike other Arabian girls, she was forthcoming, simple and straight forward in character. She adored the ways her mother had lived in and hated hypocrisy and lies. She lived in a much liberal way than her other three friends. Still she failed in her love affair. She met Faisal in one of the shopping mall when he asked her and her female friends to take him along as a brother (In Saudi, single young men are not allowed to enter certain famous shopping malls to avoid the harassment and flirting they initiate towards women). After this meeting, their relationship grew stronger but lasted only a year. Faisal backed off when she asked him to marry her simply because his family refused to allow him marrying a girl not of the family choosing and on top of that born to an American mother. She was denied simple because of her origin.

The three girls often sought advice in Lumais and Umu Nouri. Lumais often helped her friends to solve their problems and supported them in times of need. Learnt from their stories, Lumais eventually could seize her happiness. She married the man she’s in love with and succeeded in her career. The couple moved to Canada to continue their medical study.

There’re much critics in the patriarch society in the book especially how bad the men treated the women. Even, there’s a dialogue that indicated how harsh life for a women in such society. Women are considered like cattle that can be treated freely as the owner wishes to. Religion teachings are often twisted to support such treatment. While the true teaching is to glorify and protect women and not whatsoever lay a hand on them unless she behaves wrongly. Similar critic also could be noticed easily in the Princess’ Trilogy. This first book in this trilogy describes the life of Princess Sultana, a princess in the royal house of Saudi Arabia where she lives in a "gilded cage" with no freedom and no control over her own life. It will be no surprise that other similar books written by women in the region flourish rapidly. It’s a kind of women movement and empowering that channeled through words and some say ‘word is mightier than the sword’.