I can safely say that I am not the only one to write a piece about a certain recent Arabic book. It was written by a young unknown Saudi woman, Rajaa Al-Sanea. Entitled “Banat Al-Riyadh” (The Girls of Riyadh), the book has been the center of discussion and has received much attention in various Saudi papers as well as on Internet forums. For those who do not know, the book tells the story of four girls from Riyadh and their normal experiences — from how society treats divorced women to matters of love and the strong influence of culture on their daily decision-making.
I feel compelled to write my criticism of the novel maybe because I, myself, am an 18-year Saudi female. I may not be qualified to act as a judge of Rajaa’s style of writing, but I do have my opinion of her novel as well as of the everyday life of girls of my generation and the problems they have, whether they concern relationships between men and women, girls’ desires and aspirations, and the sexual discrimination most of us are forced to deal with.
I can relate to this novel, as the stories in it are those I hear and see every day among girls of my generation. However, what stunned me most was the responses to the book. A good part of the responses were negative, and clearly showed how narrow-minded and emotional some of us are.
I am sincere in my respect for Rajaa’s boldness in discussing some “taboo” subjects in our society in the first book she has ever written and had published. In my opinion, many readers misinterpreted Rajaa; she did not write in order to be a spokeswoman or in an attempt to persuade people to change their way of life.
I believe that we have finally seen a courageous and talented woman from our generation, daring to address an issue that is considered forbidden though it is discussed by each and every one each and every day.
I believe that what caught everyone’s eye was the title, “The Girls of Riyadh,” although the novel deals with only four girls. I believe that many people who read the novel kept thinking about the title which caused them to see the book not as a novel but rather as non-fiction.
Of course, many were worried about what “the others” and neighboring Arab countries would think about “us”! But in fact, every country has positive as well as negative attributes. We cannot continue to sweep all our negatives under the carpet and then pretend to be the “perfect and ideal society.”
Even with all the negativity, I continue to be proud of being Saudi. Ask a Bahraini or an Egyptian and they will tell you many stories of how badly and shamefully they see some of us behave while in their countries. This is no secret and yet we all deny it.
Let us remember that for a society’s problems to be resolved, its internal issues must be addressed with honesty, sincerity, and clarity. It is the duty of a writer — every writer — to make us think, to make us question our lives and ways of living and push us to open a debate within ourselves and among us and other members of society. In my opinion, with her book, Rajaa has done exactly that.
(Samar Fuad Al-Zayer is a Saudi student. She is based in Vienna.)