The Middle-Eastern Version of Sex in the City?

Posted on December 21, 2005

The Associated Press reports on a new novel, The Girls of Riyadh that is causing shockwaves in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia. The articles notes thst "It's hardly Sex and the City but, by Saudi standards, The Girls of Riyadh is a bombshell because it considers the thems of extramarital affairs and divorce.

The fictional tale of the loves, dreams and disappointments of four young women in the capital has, not surprisingly, drawn criticism in a country where women are not supposed to date or, until married, have a love life. More striking, however, is the degree of support being voiced for 24-year-old author Rajaa al-Sanie and her first novel.
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"The Girls of Riyadh" was published in September in Lebanon, the most liberal of Arab countries, and is going into its third printing. In Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are strictly segregated, authorities haven't decided whether to approve its sale, but pirated editions are circulating in photocopy form. It isn't available in English.

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The book, told in the form of weekly e-mails from a female narrator to Internet subscribers in Saudi Arabia, portrays four women. Their stories are based on true ones Sanie says she has heard at weddings, in school and at women's gatherings. Many in the Arab world are comparing it to "Sex and the City," the HBO series about four young women in New York City, though there is no sex in "The Girls of Riyadh," only emotions.
Sanie says she wrote the book to highlight issues that society denies. "I didn't distort the country's reputation. I wrote about humanity here," she said. "I wanted to show that both men and women are victims of society." Sanie says that among many readers who have e-mailed her is a man who got the book from his divorced daughter. "He told me it made him cry and made him realize what women go through," she said. "He decided that his daughter will not live the traditional life of a divorc�e."

The book has been both denounced and praised in the Middle East. All we can say is: it appears that women have a very long way to go in Saudi Arabia before they will have anything even approaching the freedom that American women have. And that is a tragedy.