Nam Y. Huh / AP
Rajaa Alsanea
Sex, Shopping and Social Change in Saudi Arabia
Rajaa Alsanea knew she was in for trouble when she published her novel about affluent young Arab women - what she didn't foresee was how much support she would receive.
Complete article and interview...
You can buy "The Girls of Riyadh" directly from Amazon.com below. A portion of all proceeds are donated to Al-Fatiha Foundation.
Summary of the Book (Warning: Plot and theme are revealed here).
Contact the author, Rajaa Alsanea.
Buy the Arabic version of the novel here.
Sex, Shopping and Social Change in Saudi Arabia
Rajaa Alsanea knew she was in for trouble when she published her novel about affluent young Arab women - what she didn't foresee was how much support she would receive.
By Christina Gillham
Newsweek
July 20, 2007 - When Rajaa Alsanea’s “The Girls of Riyadh” hit bookstores in the Middle East in2005, it caused a furor. Referred to by some as a “Sex and the City” for Saudi Arabia, the book delved into the social, romantic—and sometimes sex—lives of its four female characters. Published first in Lebanon—and published in the United States this month—the book almost immediately made its way to Saudi Arabia, where it was denounced by religious conservatives as immoral and hailed by reformists as a much-needed condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s restrictive society. Alsanea, 24 years old at the time, was propelled to stardom, making appearances on TV, receiving supportive phone calls from the royal family and an endorsement from no less a figure than the king’s labor minister and close adviser, Ghazi al-Gosaibi.
“The Girls of Riyadh” explores the lives of four young women—Lamees, Sadeem, Gamrah and Michelle. Their stories are told by a narrator in a series of postings on an Internet chat room. The women, like their creator, are upper-class Sunni Muslims whose lives revolve around various romantic entanglements, shopping, school and struggling against their society’s strict moral code. Alsanea wrote the book while in college, where she studied dentistry. Now living in Chicago, she is doing her residency in endodontics (root canal) and studying for her master’s degree in oral sciences. She spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Christina Gillham.
Complete article and interview...
You can buy "The Girls of Riyadh" directly from Amazon.com below. A portion of all proceeds are donated to Al-Fatiha Foundation.
Summary of the Book (Warning: Plot and theme are revealed here).
Contact the author, Rajaa Alsanea.
Buy the Arabic version of the novel here.
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