Princess Sultana's Circle, Vol. 3
Author: Jean P Sasson
With Princess Sultana's Circle, Jean Sasson completes the compelling trilogy of the women of Saudi Arabia.
In her earlier nonfiction bestsellers, Princess & Princess Sultana's Daughters, Jean Sasson helped create a new genre that has stirred widespread interest in the plight of oppressed women of Saudi Arabia. Telling the true story of "Sultana," a pseudonymous member of the Saudi royal family, Sasson described a society in which women are second class citizens with few rights, without control over their own lives, and who are subject to harsh punishment, for the slightest transgressions. Exposing what Sasson calls "one of the most backward and cruelest social systems in the world for women," the books remain best sellers with women of every age and nationality. These books have caught the attention of educators who used them as part of their reading curriculum. These books are also some of the most popular for women's reading clubs.
Now, in Princess Sultana's Circle, Jean Sasson and Princess Sultana continue to expose the primitive cultural traditions that relegate the women of Saudi Arabia to near-slave status. Portraying Sultana's great courage in risking all that she has in the quest to effect change, the final book in the Princess trilogy centers on her crisis of confidence and ultimate triumph as she stands up to the seemingly unassailable power of Saudi Arabian men. With Princess Sultana's Circle, Jean Sasson brings Sultana's story to a satisfying close, leaving readers with a sense of hope about the future of Saudi women.
Princess Sultana's Circle opens with Sultana questioning her ability to improve the lives of women in her homeland. As her wealth and possessions have increased, Sultana's happiness and contentment have decreased, undermining her aspirations to assist helpless women. When her niece is forced into an arranged marriage with a cruel, depraved older man, Sultana's attempts to intervene fail, intensifying her sense of powerlessness. Feeling frustrated and depressed, she secretly begins to drink. Imbibing alcohol is dangerous in Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal and also a sin for which she could be divorced by her husband and shunned by her family.
Soon after, while visiting the lavish home of a royal cousin, Sultana and her two daughters make a horrifying discovery—their relative is keeping a harem of sex slaves in one of the pavilions on his vast estate. Mostly Asian and quite young, the imprisoned girls tell horror stories of having been bought by their current master from their families or at public auction. Unable to rescue them because, in Saudi Arabia, there are no legal means available to free these women, Sultana blames herself for not being able to do more. A trip to New York, meant to revive her spirits, only serves to glaringly highlight the simple freedoms that Saudi women lack, from driving a car to wearing regular clothes in public.
Sultana's rebellious daughters are also providing her with daily challenges. Amani, her younger child, still caught up in Islamic zeal, may be a member of a banned political group of Middle Eastern dissidents who oppose the Saudi royal family. Her older daughter, Maha, continues to chafe against Saudi cultural restrictions and the roving "morals police." Their contrasting views on Muslim womanhood provide a fascinating glimpse into the larger internal conflicts currently confronting their country.
Ultimately, with her husband's help, Sultana is able to confront her drinking problem. This, along with several other events, gives Sultana a fresh perspective. Breaking free of her apathy, she returns to her life-long goal of raising the status of women in Saudi Arabia. However, Sultana's renewed sense of purpose is quickly tested when her nephews are caught committing an unspeakable act against a 14-year-old girl, who had been expressly purchased for sex. Galvanized into action, Sultana risks her personal status and wealth to take a stand against the complacency of her male relatives over the child's fate. Ultimately, Sultana and her sisters vow to form a circle of support that will surround and shelter abused women and girls.
Honest and deeply personal, Princess Sultana's Circle depicts one woman's heroic struggle to make a difference in a culture where change in regard to women's rights is painstakingly slow. All who read this story are certain to be moved to action by its heartfelt message: to join Princess Sultana's symbolic circle of protection and work together to secure justice and equality for women everywhere.
Interesting textbook: Air Words or Inventing the Internet
How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Author: Allen Raymond
Fresh out of grad school, Allen Raymond joined the GOP for one reason: rumor had it that there was big money to be made on the Republican side of the aisle.
From the earliest days of the Republican Revolution through its culmination in the second Bush White House, Raymond played a key role in helping GOP candidates twist the truth beyond recognition during a decade of crucial and bitterly fought campaigns. His career took him from the nastiest of local elections in New Jersey backwaters through runs for Congress and the Senate and right up to a top management position in a bid for the presidency itself.
It also took him to prison.
Full of wit and candor, Raymond's account offers an astonishingly frank look at the black art of campaigning and the vagaries of the Republican establishment. Unlike many "architects" of the political scene, the author takes full responsibility for his actions -- even as he never misses a trick.
A completely original tale of the disillusioning of a man who enters politics with no illusions, How to Rig an Election is a brilliant and hilarious exposй of how the contemporary political game is really played.
Kirkus Reviews
One of the Northeast GOP's top campaigners tells how he became an agent of corruption for the Republican revolution. Raymond's great-grandfather, John Thomas Underwood, founded the famous typewriter company, and while the author's share of that fortune ensured that he'd never go hungry, "family pride-hell, my own pride-ensured that I'd never be some yacht-hopping scion." After graduating from college in 1989 and spending a few desultory years in PR, he wandered into the Graduate School of Political Management. Based at the time in New York City, GSPM pushed a militaristic, Machiavellian approach to the business that was seductive to a drifter like Raymond: "I wanted to pick a fight, have a fight, and win a fight." For little apparent ideological reason, he went to work for the Republicans in New Jersey; later he ran a doomed campaign for a pro-choice GOP Philadelphia socialite with more friends than smarts. Raymond climbed the party ladder during the heady post-Gingrich days, when the very thought of compromise could infuriate the new South-centric Republican leadership, whose campaign rhetoric he derides as "pro-life, snake-handling babble." It's surprising at first to hear such criticisms from a highly placed operative in the Republican National Committee, but it becomes markedly less so once Raymond gets to the crux of the matter: how he was hung out to dry and went to jail for following orders to jam Democratic volunteers' phone lines. As he states early on, "In GOP circles in 2002 it seemed preposterous that anything you did to win an election could be considered a crime." He saw the light in prison and decided to tell the American voters about the dirty tricks he practiced, which hesees growing ever more common. "Now what are you going to do about it?" he asks. Refreshingly candid about his vindictive motives, Raymond offers a damning chronicle of political hubris.
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