Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

improved.
    The second week of her return, one of
Sameera’s aunties answered Tahani’s plea with the news that a
marriage had been arranged, and that Sameera wished for Tahani to
cease her contacts, for her future husband did not look favorably
upon his wife’s girlhood friends.
    Sameera finally managed to contact Tahani.
Her hopes had been dashed from the moment she saw her uncle, she
said. He had been waiting for their meeting, his fury building,
until it had peaked at the sight of his “Godless” niece.
    Since the night of her return, Sameera had
been confined to her room, awaiting the verdict of her uncle. No
member of her family dared raise a voice of protest at her
mistreatment. She whispered to Tahani that she had been informed
that a suitable marriage had been arranged; she would be wed within
the month. Sameera was terrorized at the thought, for her
relationship with Larry had been one of deep love; she was no
longer a virgin.
    We were able to discover few details of the
wedding, for no one outside Sameera’s family was invited. We knew
for certain that it was not a union of joy. We learned that the
groom was in his mid-fifties and that Sameera was the third
wife.
    Much later, Habbib was enlightened of the
family gossip by one of Sameera’s male cousins. He said that on her
wedding night Sameera had fought the husband with such strength and
determination, he had barely survived the taking of what was his.
The husband, we were told, was short and fat and not overly
muscular. Evidently, blood had been lost, but it was that of the
husband; in the fierce battle, he had had little time to verify his
wife’s virginity.
    When Tahani questioned Sameera’s auntie, who
now regretted her role in entrapping her niece, she was told that
in the beginning, the husband had been fond of the tigress he had
wed. Her insults and brave defense had done little to deter his
resolve to conquer her with force. But, as time passed, he wearied
of Sameera’s violent gestures of disdain and grew to regret the one
he had taken under his roof.
    Sameera had bragged to her auntie that, in
her distress, she had grown bold and shouted into her husband’s
round face that she could not love one such as he. She, Sameera,
had known the caresses of a real man, a man of strength. She
scorned her husband’s expertise as a lover and compared him cruelly
to her tall, handsome American.
    Without ceremony, the husband divorced
Sameera and deposited her at her uncle’s door. He angrily told the
uncle that the family had no honor and had knowingly wed him to one
who was no longer pure. In great detail, he spoke of Sameera’s
“shame” at coming to the marriage bed with memories of another in
her mind.
    In a bottomless black rage, the uncle sought
guidance through the pages of the Koran; he soon found verses that
cemented his decision to shut away the one who had shamed his
family name. The former husband, still smarting from the insults on
his manhood, furthered the decision by vowing to announce to all
who would listen the lack of honor in the home of Sameera’s uncle,
unless serious punishment were meted out to the girl.
    Habbib delivered the sad news to Tahani that
Sameera had been sentenced to “the woman’s room,” a particularly
cruel punishment. A special room on the top floor of her uncle’s
villa had been prepared for her. A windowless padded cell had been
completed for the purpose of imprisoning Sameera. The windows were
obstructed with cement blocks. Insulation had been installed so
that the cries of the one imprisoned could not be heard. A special
door had been hung, with a bottom panel adjusted to serve as entry
for food. A hole in the floor had been built for the disposal of
body wastes.
    Curious foreign workmen were informed that a
member of the family had suffered brain injuries from an accident;
it was feared that this person might harm herself or perhaps others
of the family. My sisters and I had gathered to console Tahani, who
was suffering tremendous grief at the incarceration of one close to
her heart. Each of us was in pain, for Sameera was one of us, a
Saudi woman with no recourse against injustice.
    While I plotted endless schemes of rescue, my
older sisters saw the situation more clearly. They had heard
stories about other such women, and knew that there was no hope of
extricating Sameera from the isolation of her fading life.
    For many nights sleep deserted me; I was
consumed by emotions of despair and