Girls of Riyadh
July 30th, 2007This is actually a name of a book that made so much controversy in a country that is so conservative and rigid. This novel was written by a young female Saudi dentist two years ago and now it has made it worldwide. “Girls of Riyadh” was translated into English and it hit the market last July. Only few Saudi novels have made it into translation for world audiences .
The writer, Rajaa Al-Sanie had to publish the book in Beirut two years ago since it was banned from Saudi Arabia. The book is considered by many to be the Saudi version of the HBO series “Sex & The City, it addresses behaviors of four young Saudi women that revolt at the conservative social life in the Kingdom and go against the norms promoted by Saudi society by addressing love and relationships outside the traditional framework, racism, homosexuality, sex and divorce. As such, the book was considered taboo and was officially banned in the country but was and is still widely available.
Al-Sanie even faced a lawsuit that a group of Saudi citizens filed against her for so called slandering Saudi society last year.
Interestingly, many Saudi women started writing and publishing books as was mentioned by Reuters, it is said that Saudi Arabia’s literary output doubled in 2006, with half of the authors being women. She is considered a pioneer in that field, she was able to publish her book in her early twenties.
Loading ...
Loading...
I red it, i liked it… her style is so light , u can’t leave the book while there are still unread pages !
try it ! even the ones who disliked it found it interesting…
Interestingly, this was the 1st novel she ever tried to publish, she sent a copy to Dr. Gazi Al-Qusaiby (a well known Saudi writer/poet) he liked it and advised her to publish it.. her style in writing is fresh.. I don’t know about the English version though.. but at least the rest of the world can have a sneak peek at some of what goes on with the youth and especially women in KSA. The stories are said to be fictional but I can name a few people playing the parts of the women in the book..
I never read it, but my friends say the writing is very poor and that it’s insulting to call this “literature”, maybe because of its informality.
Side note: my friends are assholes.
This reminds me. I was supposed to send this book to Nadia. Apparently Tunisian libraries suck.
Esra’a, the way it’s written is very informal, simple yet smart. She used our daily language.. she actually used little english as well..I thought it was young and hip..
The book got popular more for its content rather than the literature itself.
whatz habbening to our languige
itz being deztroid
I think she should’ve maintained a blog instead. Can you imagine the insults?! All the mattawas suing her for the sinful thoughts. Repent, sista.
That is exactly what happened, she was and still is attacked by religious extremists and non-extremists as well!!
Blogs DO NOT make money.. NOVELS such as this one does!! she’s playing it smart
Popular blogs keep their authors alive. With things like blog ads, donations, etc, you can be the next Al Saud!
And who doesn’t get attacked by extremists? I should have you log in to our e-mail address. Extremists galore!
What surprises me is the fact that she published her picture, pretty much everywhere. That really takes some guts.
Oh well, you Saudi ladies all look the same anyways.
lol!!!
I liked the book to be honest.. It showed a different version of the story of women in Saudi, especially in Riyadh, in a very close-to-public way.. She must be assigned to some Witness Protection Program, because i saw the men and WOMEN reviews in a lot of bulletin boards.. Amazingly, the people siding with her are more than you can expect..
The title, however, makes the buyer question what the book might be about.. Something tasteful, or another Abo Shallakh.. Then again, she got “balls”..
The english version isn’t that good, and Sadly, no publishing house offered to do a translation, nor i think the government would allow this book to be translated abroad and then shipped back here..
this whole book was blown out of proportion. The publicity it got just from not being able to publish it in saudia made it sell even more. It is a book like any other book all around the world but the difference is that she wrote about other people (some of them are real stories and are about some of her friends)in a community that doesnt like to be faced with their own reality.
i haven’t read the book – don’t think it’s available in Libya- but i’ve seen a couple of interviews. She’s one smart lady, and she adressed all the muttawa-type accusations.
the interviwes were for almustaqbal and alarabiya, so there are clearly som saudi royals who support this trend.
One thing though, a libyan girl i know who grew up in saudi says the book brings into the open some aspects of saudi society often kept under wraps, but it’s still dealing with a minority. There is perhaps a danger in generalising the ‘kinky saudi chick’ into another stereotype which is perhaps even more inaccurate than the puritan maiden?
I’m not sure if the book is like that, as i’m mouthing off without having read it
, it may well be that it’s only the simplistic/sensational media coverage that is generating it’s own ‘riadh girls’.
[...] novel Girls of Riyadh paved the way for more women to make their voices heard in Saudi Arabia, explains Rasha. Share [...]
Please, could anyone send a link in English?
I for one could not put the book down! I have just finished reading the English version and found it really fun and a good read despite the tragic events for some of the girls, I especially sympathised with Quamrah or Gamrah(in English) and stories like hers are a tradgedy I think she was thrown to the lion’s den by both families and her ex-husband was despicable.
I was not under the illusion that all Saudi women behaved in the way these girls did and understood that they were a special group that does exist in Saudi society. The auther was very brave in publishing the book and I don’t think she was trying to scandalise Saudi society. I do think that some of the charachters (not naming any names) were naive in their expectations of the men in the novel and in their behaviour.
I read the book in Arabic when it first came out, and quite frankly I was (to put it lightly) not impressed. It is a fairly good beach read, though, I’ll give her that.
What concerns me, however, is how in Saudi Arabia, any remotely successful woman is loathed.
I honestly have a lot of respect for this woman, and I think she deserves a lot of respect.
hello friend’s ….can any 1 send me the book , so i feel very happy about it … if any 1 interested send me mail ……so i can give my addresses , i am from india
its so bad book against our calture , i lived in Saudi 24 years i feel peace there , now no more peace because of such behaviours and books from uglyy ppls , jue penetrate all arabic countries to destroy it a bit by bit,
so so bad book to be published
A woman speaks and suddenly you feel that your culture and the “peace” within it is threatened? If anything you should feel proud that Saudi women are slowly but surely being empowered. It’s time for you men to stop justifying what women have to go through in your country.
soudi girls are muh mafi but so sexy ha ha ha
Literature is a mirror held up to life…
We cannot expect that people of a community be exposed to an alternative way of living through all the effective media, which is inevitable, and then do not feature alternative projections, as books and articles and view points other than the conventional ones.
This is not what is happening in a single country, it is happening every where, even in countries considered as standard and groomed in their values such as freedom of speech and else, now they face cultural controviersies, there are items in their baskets of readables foreign to their taste.
I feel our younger representatives of culture and society tend to have a more honest approach in reflecting what is there in the society. Literature does not create but reflect a culture, so perhaps a society would better pay attention to the current literature as to understand what is going on, even if to help a society develop in a way, how to deal with its issues.
Well Hussein..
This is a very typical response.. just bury your head in the sand and act as if everything is fine and dandy around you..
Just because you live in your own perfect bubble doesn’t mean that real problems do not exist around you..
This attitude is why progress is very slow in this country..
Blaming a book that is fictional in nature(although to be honest I have heard similar and even much worse stories happening in our private society) is not a solution. We have to address these matters and accept that we are not a perfect society.. to be able to solve them.
I believe that people who shut their eyes to what is real and would rather live in la la land are the ones keeping us behind!!
I M SM Nurunnobi from Bangladesh. I like to get a saudi girl as my life partner. she will be a student of science related subject and devoted muslima. If any kind hearted saudi arabian girl agree with my proposal. I will request her to contact with me by email address (nurunnobi@gmail.com). my mobile number is 01554631653. Oh yah, my age is 23 now. so my life partner’s ages must 20-22 yars old. Allah Hafez.
wow ur such a catch i wish i was saudi!! i’d love a huzband whose proposal is via an anonymous comment on a blog.
But seriously Rasha – I am going to leave the above comment undeleted for comic purposes.
Thank you very much Esraá!!
He’s looking for a 20-22 yr old.. I think you would fit the profile more than I would.. and Bahrain is a few kilometers away.. I am sure he’ll find you fascinating!!
So how about that?
Actually .. I think he only read the title and thought this was a dating site.. hmmmmm.. MEY= Dating that’s an amusing thought!
I have just began reading the book ‘Girls of Riyadh.’ I am 1/2 American 1/2 Saudi. I just moved to KSA 2 months ago, so i am reading the book in english. i am jelous that everyone says the book is not good in english because my arabic is not good.(but i am learning.) I find it interesting because i didnt think such a thing went on. But then again i couldnt believe that it didnt.
I lived in Riyadh as an expat for 3 years. If only the men were half as well behaved as the women. hypocrisy at its best. just found out about the book from a colleague and will be reading it eagerly. Go girls of Riyadh – Girl Power!
Very interesting. Just wondering if anyone has read the Princess trilogy by Jean Sasson? That opened my eyes to how Riyadh is at the moment and really made my blood boil. Then a month later I find this site.
Funny how things happen.
I really recommend the books by the way.
Josh the book is call The Princess Trilogy? I will read it. I have much time on my hands. I finished the book Girls of Riyadh…it was a good book. I wonder So much who these girls are…as I meet more and more girls from Riydh i wonder if any of them are one of the charecters.
My opinoin
It was poor. since I read a one sentence. I judge this is a bad novel.
dears. be attention, no any body can write a novel. it is requiring a special feature in Arabic language. as the Raja novel from the context you can decide is it a high level or not.
So, if you not agree. please contrast it with Al-Manflody novels as example.
It is a different.
The common people will read this novel. Because they like slang language as Raja novel.
Thank you.
Im a foreigner in Saudi Arabia but i was born and grew up here… over the years i heard storeis like this and witness some of it by my own eyes. Even though we play as blind people because of fear to pick of and be hurt by the natives of this country… Speaking nothing but knows everything that happen.. Rajaa Al-Sanie and her supporter.. we are supporting your advocate secretly… HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOT ONLY FOR MEN, IT IS MADE TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS WOMEN AND CHILDREN….
Some say the book is ‘poor’ or not well written. or that it doesnt translate in english well. but the whole contraversy of the book is not how it is written but what she wrote. she has exposed information about a country who tries there best to portray and prove that this doesnt happen.
Its what she wrote not how she wrote it! DUH
There are millions of books exactly like it but they are not based is saudi arabia therefor they did not get the press
Whoever says this is a bad book for technical reasons totally missed the main point and sadly they think of themselves as superior to other.”only common people like this kind of readings”.
Great book, entertaining, brave, easy to read. Congratz Rajaa.
Well, to be honest the book “Banat Alriyadh” talks about whats really goes on in the saudi community.
Most Saudi’s, beeing Men Or Women would not approve of the book seeing how it “raises the vale” off our very conservative community, secrets that would be preferred to stay untold, are told. Im not saying thats Wrong by any meens. This might be the only way for change in this loked up diverse community. Knowing that the world knows about our secrets. Hopfully they wont remain secrets anymore, and Daughters And Sons could seek Advise from There Mothers And Fathers, without beeing “humiliated” or other stong, but very true words used by Sayda rajaa. Maybe we would be more open minded and the stories in the book would fade away. And a new community would be born.
Thank You.
I am reading the book in English right now and despite the choppy writing style/translation, I am really enjoying it. We (I am Canadian) don’t get a lot of chances to understand what life is like within other cultures and I like the fact that this book makes the lives of these Saudi girls accessible.
I am curious, would you out there consider it to be a true snapshot of life in the kingdom?
Melissa the book is not a snap shot of life in Kingdom. One of the reasons making the book popular is that it talks about sex in the Arabic world and this is maybe the first book that does. Other books only talk about protected sex relations. I am 22 years girls and I live the Arabic Gulf and I have not met anyone in my hole life who have a life similar to those four girls in the book. There might be few girls who have this life but they are rare. Another thing about the Kingdom and the Arabic Gulf is when u talk about “Sex & The City” u get famous.
I wouldn’t credit this book with that, there are several books that talk about sex in the Arab world throughout the history of Arabic literature.
Thank u Esra`a. But do u think the book is a snap shot of life in Kingdom?
Hai
I really liked this book because it shows that women in the “Kingdom” world are just like any other women in the world. They have dreams, they like men, fall in love, and imagine that married life is supposed to be safe and that your husband should love you and protect you. Unfortunately, like in other parts of the world, women are blinded by love and men in societies that supress women don’t give a **** about them. I hope this book does make a difference and helps women to have their voices heard and eventually can become more self empowered.
Just in case, I’m married to great man for 25 yrs., I’m a professional latin woman and work with people from Saudi Arabia. I’ve seen the behaviour of young saudi women when they come to the states. They are as normal as one can expect any young woman to be. This being the case, in their country they would be considered “out of line”.
I really enjoyed Girls of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a country that scares me after reading the Princess books……… after this book I see the strength of these saudi girls and see hope for change in this country…….well heres hoping!! Girl power is alive and well in Saudi!!
I bought this book coz Im in lov with one Saudi girl,,,,,,,After reading it I came to why my gf wana me to leave her even thought she loves me a lot,,,,,,nyc book & gr8 work Raja Alsanea,,,,,
i rily lyk dat book tho am in africa i can c how women r sufferin in de hands f men
hi looking 4 girl 4 friendship live in riyadh saudia arabia this is my number 0500205052
If you thought GIRLS OF RIYADH was controversial, take a look at my novel SHAIKH-DOWN (just published in UK). The book shows the events leading up to the assassination of the Amir of Belaj, an imaginary island in the Gulf. The Amir’s nymphomaniac niece Nayla is a key character in the story, destined to become the Arab World’s first female President. A wave of revolutions follows the one in Belaj, overthrowing all the region’s Rulers, but on the horizon is not the Dawn of Democracy but – thermonuclear Armageddon.
The book’s a comedy, by the way!
I just read the book ( english version). I found it amazing! One thing for sure, no matter which country you’re from, you’ll identify with the characters. Women all around have the same kind of emotions.
Bless you Rajaa Alsanea. Waiting eagerly for your next novel.
irfan
from
mohd irfan id mohdirfan786786@yahoo.com