Princess Sultana's Daughters

interests abroad, and he put
some of those businesses in the names of his children.
    Jafer was responsible for the clerical
aspects of the documents. When Fouad’s family arrived, they were
ushered into Jafer’s office, where the young man was told to obtain
the necessary signatures. As our religious customs demand, Samia
and her daughter, Fayza, were veiled. Feeling protected in a locked
office, in the presence of a trusted employee, both women threw
their veils off their faces for the purpose of reading and signing
documents.
    Now, in the midst of the controversy, Samia
had the dimmest recollection that her daughter and Jafer had stared
at each other for too long a time. Samia, innocent in her inherent
goodness, did not connect her daughter’s nervous behavior and
crooked signature with the medley of incredible fancies that were
playing upon her child.
    At the time, Samia listened without hearing
and looked without seeing.
    The handsome young man, Jafer, offered them
tea, and Samia watched her daughter as she gratefully received his
attentions, their hands lightly brushing in the innocent exchange
of pens and cups of tea. She told her husband that, at the time,
she had thought the touches were accidental.
    Kareem reported that Fouad had screamed
insults, blaming his wife, telling her that all men are by nature
villains, and that she, the mother of an innocent girl, should have
been more attuned to Jafer’s evil nature! Fouad had moaned,
claiming that Jafer was nothing more than a man with a poem on his
lips and a dagger in his pocket!
    Samia could recall nothing more, except that
her child had seemed flushed and feverish while in the company of
Jafer.
    Fayza’s personal Filipino maid, Connie, knew
many details. She was carefully questioned by Kareem and Fouad. The
two men discovered that there was no end to the intrigue of the two
lovers, and according to Connie, it was Fouad’s daughter, rather
than Jafer, who had pursued the affair.
    Connie reported that from that first day,
Fayza was stricken by a great love, a weakening love that made the
girl forget to eat and sleep. Torn between loyalty to her family
and sexual desire for Jafer, Fayza confessed to her maid that love
was the victor. She would have this man, Jafer, or no man at
all.
    Connie said that she had never seen a girl so
taken by a man.
    Knowing the plans of Fayza’s parents for
their lovely daughter, Connie found herself in an unenviable
position. She could not report the truth about her young mistress,
yet she knew that she should. Connie swore to Fouad she had
reminded Fayza that the daughter of a wealthy Saudi family, with
close connections to the Al Sa’uds, could not end up with a
Palestinian clerk.
    Such a situation could only lead to
misfortune.
    Having a tendency to lapse into criticism of
our male-dominated society, I thought of where the blame might be
placed. Thinking of Saudi Arabia’s restrictive social customs, I
interrupted Kareem and told him I had come to a conclusion, that
Fayza’s overreaction to a charming, handsome man made a mockery of
our system. My voice thick with frustration, I declared that if men
and women could only meet each other under normal circumstances,
these delusions of instant love would be more infrequent.
    While I do believe that great attractions
lead to genuine love, such as had happened with my sister Sara and
her husband, Asad, such a happy outcome is rare. When life is
filled with harsh social restrictions, when young men and women
rarely have the opportunity to enjoy one another’s company on
ordinary social occasions, spontaneous emotions are quick to rise
to the surface, often ending in terrible personal tragedies.
    With an irritated look on his face, Kareem
said he would quit the room if I insisted on burdening the
conversation with my well-known theories about the subjugation of
females in the Saudi culture!
    Abdullah looked at me with longing, his eyes
begging me not to make a scene. For the sake of my son, I agreed to
be quiet.
    Kareem, subtly pleased, continued to describe
the drama. Fayza, telling Connie her heart had been a willing
recipient of love, knew that Jafer loved her, too, but that he was
vulnerable, in his low position, to her elevated status. She feared
that he would never take the initiative.
    Fayza boldly called Jafer at his office,
asking him to meet with her, promising that her family would never
know.
    Jafer, while acknowledging to Fayza that no
woman had ever affected