Princess Sultana's Daughters

are exhibitionists?
This tendency cannot be changed, but it is a man’s duty to keep her
away from all men, otherwise, she will squander her beauty and give
her charms to any man who asks...”
    Furious, Kareem turned his back and walked
away from his friend. His face was an ugly mask as he led his women
from the scene. In a loud voice he said to me, “That Yousif has
become a dangerous man!”
    I glanced back at Yousif. Never have I
witnessed such evil in a man’s face.
    Kareem called his brother-in-law Mohammed on
his portable telephone and asked him to make some delicate
inquiries about Yousif’s activities, telling Mohammed that the man
was extremely radical and possibly an instigator of violence.
    Within hours, Mohammed returned Kareem’s call
and said that Kareem was on the mark, that the man was a skilled
lawyer whose clients were members of the Gamaa Al Islamiya, an
Egyptian Islamic extremist group formed in the early 1980s that was
responsible for militant violence in Egypt.
    Kareem was astonished. Yousif represented men
who were attempting to overthrow the Egyptian secular government!
The Egyptian internal security authorities had told Mohammed that
there had never been charges lodged against the man, but when in
Egypt, he was kept under careful surveillance. Mohammed added that
he had placed Saudi Security around Yousif to ensure that he did
not cause problems while in Saudi Arabia.
    A little less than a year later, Kareem was
saddened but not surprised at the news that Yousif had been
arrested in Assiut, in southern Egypt, as a principal leader of the
Muslim extremist group. While watching a news program, Kareem
spotted Yousif’s face—his old friend was looking out on the world
from a cage. Kareem followed his case closely and seemed somewhat
relieved that Yousif had not been sentenced to death, while I
thought the world was a more dangerous place with such men among
the living and would have welcomed his demise.
    In spite of the fact that we were at Haj and
knew we should not concentrate on worldly matters, the man Yousif
had made such an impression on our daughters’ moods that Kareem
thought it best to talk the matter through and give Amani and Maha
the comforting knowledge that men like Yousif were only a passing
phase in a long Islamic history.
    After the dinner hour, our family sat and
discussed the man Yousif and what he represented in the Muslim
world.
    We asked each of the children their thoughts
on what they had heard that day.
    Abdullah was the first to speak. Our son was
plainly disturbed, saying that Islam was on the move and that it
would affect each of our lives, for the extremist groups were
calling for the downfall of the Saudi monarchy. He envisioned Saudi
Arabia going the way of Iran, with a man like Khomeini leading our
country. Abdullah predicted that his generation of Al Sa’uds would
live out their lives on the French Riviera, and such a thought was
distressing to him.
    After hearing what the man had to say about
females and their value, Maha was spitting mad and wanted her
father to have Yousif arrested and charged as a spy. She thought
she would like to see him beheaded, even if it was on trumped-up
offenses!
    Amani was reflective and said that the Arabic
love of all things Western was allowing men such as Yousif to gain
power in Muslim countries.
    Kareem and I looked at each other, neither of
us liking our youngest child’s turn of thought.
    Maha pinched her sister, accusing her of
supporting the man’s words.
    Amani denied the charge but said that she did
consider the possibility that life was more simple when women’s
roles were more defined and not open for discussion and change. She
mentioned that in the bedouin life prior to the building of cities,
men and women were not so confused as they were today.
    It was as I had feared! My daughter’s
thoughts were taking her back in time. She seemed to be losing
pride in her femaleness, and I wondered what I could do to
reinforce her sense of worth as a modern woman in an advancing
civilization.
    Abdullah did not understand and began to
laugh, asking Amani if she longed for the time when female babies
were buried in the sand! It was not too late to take up the
practice, he said, Yousif could introduce us to a man who had
recently killed his own daughter!
    Knowing Amani’s delicate mental state, Kareem
gave his son a stern look and said that the matter was no joke,
that the evil practice was a terrible problem in India,