Independent Reading Essay

The book Princess-a true story of life behind the veil in Saudi Arabia. It is about a woman's life, mainly the persecution that she suffers in Saudi Arabia. This book follows her entire life up untill the time it was written, and is completely true. It does not have one main plot, but many. The story takes us through Sultana’s life and experiences as a female in the extremely devout Muslim Saudi Arabia. The women’s live is “like the bird in the gilded cage.” This goes really well with mythology

Differences between woman and men in sexual behavior in mythology:

Males’ gods (Zeus, Cronus) had usually many mistress, who became their wives after that. They had sex for fun and the women only for “making” children. Male gods has been called a symbol-making creature. On the other hand in Mycenaeans culture people worshipped Mother Earth, who was their supreme divinity. The man, the father, was an unimportant figure, for there was complete sexual freedom. A woman could love whomever and as many men as she chose. In fact, in the early times, people didn’t realize that a male was necessary for procreation.

Connection to the book(see page 121/122):
In Saudi Arabia, women are only for “making” children and give the heir to husband. Men in Saudi Arabia have sex mostly for fun. So they can have many women like Zeus had in mythology.


Differences between women and men in social behavior in mythology:
Male gods are usually at the top (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades). The principal deity became male (Zeus). The myth of Uranus’s rule represents the attempt of the ancient Greeks-the Mycenaean’s-to explain the origin of universe. Because they had inherited a patriarchal, male-dominated religion. The king established himself as the principal ruler of the community, and inheritance usually fell upon the oldest male son. Daughters became the property of their fathers, bestowed in marriage as their father chose. Wives became subject to the wills of their husband.


Connection to the book (see page 136-137,257)
In Saudi Arabia women are dominated completely by men, who by the grace of God are deemed superior. If there could be one word that would describe the Saudi women it would be waiting. They spent their lives waiting. Wait to be married, wait to give birth, wait for grandchildren. Sons are the sole reason for marriage, the key for satisfaction for the husband.

Women’s are sold into marriage to men five times their age, which their father or oldest brother chose for them. In Saudi Arabia there is very little women rights. Women are mostly depending on men.


Women as a lower class in society

The story about Sultana’s life showed us how women are treated as lower class than men in Saudi Arabia and in myth. We get a true sense of how little has changed for women in Saudi Arabia in over a thousand years due to a deep fear of change by the religious/political leaders. In one of the wealthiest lands on Earth it is primitively still a man's world - a world of arrogance, domination, ego and ignorance.
Princess Sultana, because she is a woman she is considered worthless-a slave to the whims of her male master. She doesn’t have the freedom to speak, the freedom to work, the freedom to think…. the women are like a virtual prisoners in a country that does not recognize women's rights

Connection to the book (see page 22-23)
"By treating women as slaves, as property, men have made themselves as unhappy as the women they rule, and have made love and true companionship unattainable to both sexes." page 22-23.