Video: Eastern Mystery: Does Sheikh Sultan Really Exist - Heroine of the Bestselling Memoirs of a Princess
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The trilogy of the American writer Jean P. Sasson, written on behalf of the Arabian princess, immediately became a world bestseller. Probably, this was exactly the book that was long awaited - a detailed and frank story about one of the most closed communities in the world - the royal family of Al Saud. However, a fly in the ointment appeared quite quickly - accusations of plagiarism and claims that the story of friendship between a Saudi princess and a Western journalist was pure fiction.
While reading the book, Princess Sultana, the main character and the real author of "Memoirs", appears before us as a living person with her own advantages and disadvantages. The main theme of the book is the disenfranchised share of women in the East, who are, in fact, in centuries-old slavery. Moreover, this state of affairs is fully supported by local laws, both religious and state. Princess Sultana, although she is a representative of the royal dynasty, nevertheless actively advocates for the rights of women. The author explains that the real "Diaries" are reworked notes of the princess, which she decided to publish under a false name, as she is afraid to reveal her real face.
Fabulous wealth and no less fabulous cruelty, customs and traditions of the Muslim world, peeped "from the first person" - all this attracted attention to Jean Sasson's book. The very image of a princess, spoiled since childhood, but at the same time being a toy in the hands of men and actively protesting against the whole system, seems very attractive. This is exactly the character that "would be worth inventing" if he did not exist.
Adds authenticity to the book and many exotic details. On the one hand, the author talks in detail about wild punishments for women, such as drowning a girl in a garden pool by the decision of a home council for having a relationship with a man. But on the other hand, such scenes are interspersed with descriptions of private planes and the palaces of Arabian princes. They mention shopping in London and Paris with a waste of money comparable to the budget of a small European country. In general, scary and beautiful oriental tales in the style of "the rich also cry".
However, it was just the question of reliability that was raised in the wake of the outbreak of the scandal. Soon after the publication of the first book, a certain Monica Adsani announced that all the facts described in the Memoirs were stolen from her autobiography Cinderella in Arabia. In addition, she accused Jean Sasson of deviating from the truth:. Well, and the conviction of a lie became quite insulting for the author:
The case even went to court. However, the proceedings that took place in New York did not confirm these allegations. After several unsuccessful appeals, having spent more than two million dollars on legal costs, she said, Monica Adsani stopped trying to sue her authorship on this work.
Jean Sasson, in response, created two more books from the cycle, and in terms of style and fullness of facts, they are no worse than the first. She continues to stick to her line. The sheikh described in the book under the name of Sultan, if it exists, will keep it incognito for obvious reasons. Therefore, the question of whether there is a real prototype for the brave Saudi princess may never be reliably revealed.
About the amazing fate of this unique woman in our review "Amira al-Tawil is a princess who destroys stereotypes about women in Saudi Arabia".
Text: Anna Konstantinova
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