Jean Sasson

writer

As a child, Jean Sasson was fascinated by stories of countries and cultures different from her own. This curiosity continued into her adult years, ultimately propelling her to find work in a foreign country. In 1978, she took a job as an administrative coordinator at the King Faisal Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When Sasson first arrived in Saudi Arabia, little of Western civilization had penetrated Saudi culture. At that time, as a guest of the country, she chose not to question the obvious secondary status of females in the Kingdom, where women were forced into marriage, sent into isolation for small infractions, and even sentenced to death at their husband's command. During her ten years of living in a Saudi neighborhood in the Kingdom, Sasson developed a strong network of friendships with Saudi women. Through them, she began to understand the day-to-day reality of being a female in a male-dominated society where Arab women are without legal recourse from individual acts of violence and cruelty. Although she reacted with horror, Sasson still did not feel that as a single Western woman, she was in a position to bring about change in a rigid social system that has been in place for the last two thousand years. At an Italian embassy function in 1983, Sasson met an extraordinary Saudi princess, the Sultana of her books. Establishing an instant rapport, they began a friendship that has grown and strengthened over the years. Although they were from diverse cultures, they found themselves to be true soul mates. In 1985, Sultana requested that Sasson write a book about the injustice of life for women in Saudi Arabia. The author was initially reluctant to take such a step, although she ultimately revealed it to the world with *Princess*, (1992) and *Princess Sultana's Daughters*, (1994).