Princess Sultana's Daughters by Jean Sasson

Author:Jean Sasson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: women in the middle east, islamic women, jean sasson, women in saudi arabia, muslim princess, islam and women, saudi arabia royalty, women of middle eastern, islam and gender studies, womens rights in the middle east, womens rights in saudi arabia
Publisher: Jean Sasson

Love Affair

When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.

—KAHLIL GIBRAN

Amani and her sister, Maha, woke me from a pleasant afternoon nap. Through the heavy doors leading into my private quarters, I could hear my daughters screaming at one another.

What had Amani done now? I thought to myself as I quickly dressed. Since Amani’s religious conversion, she liked to tell people what she thought of them, never hesitating to enumerate the immoral actions of her brother and sister, searching endlessly for a pretext to censure her siblings.

My son, Abdullah, was loath to fight. Dreading Amani’s incalculable and apparently unappeasable wrath, Abdullah, more often than not, simply ignored his sister. On the rare occasions that Amani’s demands were simple to fulfill, he capitulated.

Amani did not find such agreement possible with Maha. In her older sister, Amani was dealing with a female whose character was at least as strong as her own, for Maha’s violent temper had been apparent from her first breath.

I followed the sound of my daughters’ shouts. Several of the servants were standing in the doorway of the kitchen, but they were disinclined to interrupt what to their eyes was lively entertainment.

I had to push my way into the room. I arrived at an opportune moment. Maha, who is much fiercer than her younger sister, had reacted violently to Amani’s latest regulation. As I rushed toward my daughters, I saw that Maha had her younger sister pinned on the floor and was rubbing her face into the pages of the morning newspaper!

It was as I had thought! Just the week before, Amani and her religious group had come to the conclusion that the kingdom’s daily newspapers were made holy because their pages contained the word God, the sayings of the Holy Prophet, and verses of the Koran. The committee had decreed that newspapers were not to be walked upon, eaten upon, or thrown into the trash. At the time, Amani had given notice to her family of this religious decision, and now she had evidently apprehended Maha committing an irreverent act, heedless of her noble instruction.

The result had been predictable. I shouted, “Maha! Release your sister!” Spurred on by her anger, Maha seemed not to hear my excited command. I made a futile attempt to pull Maha away from her sister, but my daughter was determined to teach Amani a lesson. Since Maha was stronger than Amani and I together, she was the victor of our three-way struggle.

Red-faced and breathing with great effort, I looked to the servants for assistance, and one of the Egyptian drivers moved quickly to intervene. The man had strong arms and was successful in separating my daughters.

One battle always invites another. Verbal insults replaced physical force. Maha began to curse her baby sister, who was weeping bitter tears while accusing her elder sister of being a non-believer.

I proposed to mediate but could not be heard above the mayhem. I pinched the skin on my daughters’ arms until they were silenced.

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