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

every grievance the mutawas
considered. They were women of the middle class, women who were
teachers of other women or students—our thinkers and doers. As a
result of their bravery, their lives were devastated by their
actions: passports taken, jobs lost, and families harassed.
    While shopping in a local mall, Sara and I
overheard young religious students as they aroused Saudi men
against these women by saying they were leaders of vice and made
their living as prostitutes; they had been denounced in the mosque
as such by men who had reason to know! My sister and I lingered at
a store window to hear the young men loudly proclaim that the
temptations transported from the West would cause the honor of all
Saudis to disintegrate!
    I wanted to meet with the women, to share in
their glory. When I proposed my idea to Kareem, his reaction
violently closed the possibility. He threatened to have me shut in
the house should I attempt such an outrage. At that moment, I hated
my husband, for I knew he was capable of fulfilling his threat; he
was suddenly wild with fear for our country as well as of the havoc
we women could bring to the Royal Family.
    Within a few days I built my courage and
tried to locate those brave women. I returned to the mall. When I
saw throngs of men in a circle, I told my Filipino driver to go to
them and say he was a Muslim (there are a number of Muslim
Filipinos in Saudi Arabia) and request the paper with the telephone
numbers of the “fallen women”. He was to say that he wanted to call
their fathers or their husbands to protest the behavior of their
daughters or wives.
    He returned with the paper; I warned him
against telling Kareem. Fortunately, unlike Arab servants, the
Filipinos tend to avoid our family conflicts and make no mention of
our small freedoms to our husbands.
    The paper listed thirty names and telephone
numbers. My hand shook as I dialed the first number. Only three
calls were answered in weeks of constant dialing. No matter what I
said, I was told that I must have the wrong number. The harassment
had been so insistent that the families chose either denial or not
to answer their phones.
    On his way out of the country, Ali came by to
visit. He and his family of four wives and nine children were
traveling to Paris for a few weeks. My brother claimed he wanted to
fight the Iraqis, but his plate was filled with business
responsibilities that were indeed more important to our country
than another man in uniform. He, Ali, must do his duty and leave
Saudi Arabia.
    I knew my brother was going to wait out the
war in safety. I had no desire on that day to confront his
cowardice; I merely smiled and wished him a good trip.
    The topic of the women drivers was introduced
when Ali hinted slyly that one of the protestors had been put to
death by her father for shaming the family. The father had thought
that by executing his daughter, the religious fanatics would leave
him and the remainder of the family in peace. Ali actually smiled!
How I hated this brother of mine. He was well suited to a land that
kept women at his feet. He would fight to the end to keep women in
a lowly position, for a man such as he would be terrorized by a
woman of strength and character.
    When I questioned Kareem, he claimed not to
know of the incident, but told me to put it out of my mind. This
was not our affair. He mentioned that he would not be surprised,
since the families of the women had suffered along with the
troublemakers. He smugly said, “I told you so,” reminding me of his
prediction on the day of the protest. I felt that Kareem had
tricked me with his past talk of free women; surely he now was
little advanced over Ali in his thinking. Was there not one man in
my country who desired women’s bonds loosened?
    *
    The rumor of the death of the young woman
held fast in our land, and to this day, her fate has not been
denied or confirmed; it hangs over us women, a veiled threat of the
ultimate sacrifice awaiting those with courage.
    The war we so dreaded came and went. Our men
fought and died, but I heard from Kareem that many of our soldiers
had not fought bravely. In fact, the allies had found it necessary
to invent tactics to ensure that we Arabs were not offended when
the truth about our warriors was revealed. My husband blushed when
he told of Saudis running away from, instead of toward, the enemy.
Our only pride in our military was for the prowess of our pilots,
who performed with honor.
    Asad gave his