Jean P Sasson

Sasson, author of Princess: A True Story of Life behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia (1992) and Ayada: Daughter of Iraq (2003), focuses on the story of Joanna Al-Askari Hussain, a Kurdish woman living in Iraq, to tell the broader story of ethnic tensions between the Kurds, Iraqis, Turks, Iranians, and Syrians. Written in the first person, Joanna's story covers her romance with a Kurdish freedom fighter, marriage, and taking up the struggle against the...

Feeling that men are generally at the root of female grief, she argues that it is the duty of the discontented like herself to seek change so that her children's generation will have some relief from the oppression that stifles Saudi women's lives today. The book is more than that-it gives insight into the lives of royalty and the views of those who can be religious while ignoring the strict Sunni rules against alcohol and temporary marriage.