Princess Sultana, a member of a high Saudi Arabian royal family, allegedly kept diaries detailing the mistreatment of Saudi women. Her story was used by author Jean P. Sasson to write the book Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. The authenticity of Princess Sultana and the book has been debated, with allegations of plagiarism and factual inaccuracies. Despite this, both Sasson and Princess Sultana continue to claim the truth of the story.
Princess Sultana is said to be a woman from one of the highest royal families in Saudi Arabia. She reportedly kept diaries detailing the harrowing treatment of Saudi women and passed her story on to an author named Jean P. Sasson, who would later use the diaries to write a book, Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. Whether she really exists remains a major debate in the literary and political world.
Overview of the history of Princess Sultana
Through Sasson’s text, Princess Sultana reveals a place where men assume inexorable dominion over women. She shows how the denial of human rights for women begins with children, offering details of a time when she was severely punished as a child for eating an apple her brother wanted. Her story also describes how women are often poorly educated or rejected education altogether.
Much of Princess Sultana’s story is not for the faint of heart. In addition to providing personal information, she tells stories of women being starved or locked in rooms for what most people would consider minor infractions, detailing how they are tormented and, in some cases, stoned, all within the confines of the laws of the land. . She even provides accounts of women who, after being sexually assaulted, are executed as punishment for allegedly seducing their rapists.
Name change
Part of the debate over whether Princess Sultana is real stems from the fact that Sasson and his agent, Peter Miller, actually changed her name. They argue that this was necessary to protect Sultana from the harm that would likely happen to her if people knew who she really was. They also say that protecting her identity keeps her children out of harm’s way. Supporters say there is enough evidence to suggest that fears of retaliation against a woman speaking out in Saudi Arabia are well founded.
The lawsuit of Friederike Monika Adsani
Friederike Monika Adsani is an Austrian woman who, for a time, was married to a man from a Kuwaiti family. You wrote a manuscript entitled Cinderella in Arabia about the problems you had in your marriage and fitting into Kuwaiti society. Eventually, she sent the text to Peter Miller, but she reportedly turned the job down because it wasn’t sensational enough. After the Gulf War, in 1992, Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia was published under Sasson’s byline.
Adsani became aware of Sasson’s text and noticed extreme similarities between his original manuscript and Sasson’s version. Some of the language seemed to be taken directly from Adsani’s work. Making matters even more suspicious was the fact that Peter Miller, the same agent who had sent Cinderella back to Arabia, was the agent representing Sasson. Convinced that her work had been plagiarized, Adsani filed a copyright lawsuit alleging that Miller and Sasson had stolen her manuscript, publishing it in Sasson’s name to sell more copies.
Following the lawsuit, a woman claiming to be Sasson responded to the plagiarism allegation on the popular Dogear Diary blog. The post describes Adsani as not only desperate to get published, but generally unstable. He further claims that the “lazy” media simply repeats the allegations without trying to find the truth, and that, if Princess Sultana were false, it would not have been possible to write the additional books about her that followed Princess: A True Story of Life behind the veil in Saudi Arabia. Sasson posted more information trying to discredit Adsani on her website, saying Adsani was stalking her.
Conclusion
In 1996, as the Princess Sultana debate raged, the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs highlighted significant problems with the case. The article that appeared stated that the text published by Sasson is full of factual inaccuracies. Among these are claims about female circumcision (not generally practiced in the Middle East) and false claims about headscarves, dowries and women’s permission to enter mosques. Critics, including former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Akins, have pointed out that even if these issues weren’t in the work, many of the events depicted are so horrific that they would have been widely known and condemned in Saudi Arabia. They explain that, in general, Saudis think the book is a fake and are disappointed and surprised that Americans believe the stories of cruelty are true.
Perhaps even more damaging are the statements made by multiple people involved in the case. Experts such as Dr. R. Victoria Arana, a professor of English at Howard University, for example, have testified to the similarities between Adsani’s manuscript and Sasson’s book. Comments made by Miller himself following the lawsuit also appeared incriminating.
Despite these supports, Adsani lost the case against Miller and Sasson. The court not only dismissed the case but also ordered her to pay all court costs for the defendants. Both Sasson and Adsani continue to claim that they are telling the truth about Princess Sultana.
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