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مقالة صحفية لـ : Samar Al-Zayer
I am not the first one to
write about a recent Arabic book written by a young,
unknown Saudi female writer named Rajaa Al-Sanea. Her
book, Banat Al-Riyadh (The Girls of Riyadh), raised
heated discussions in various Saudi newspapers as well
as Internet forums.
For those who don t know, the book is a novel that tells
the story about four girls from Riyadh (the capital of
Saudi Arabia), and the everyday complications they have
to go through, from the way society treats divorced
women, to love matters, and the strong effect of culture
on their daily decision-making.
Though I don t think of myself as qualified to judge
Al-Sanea s style, I felt driven to write my own
criticism of the novel probably because I myself am an
18-year-old Saudi woman, so I do have my own opinion
about her novel, as well as the everyday lives of girls
of my generation, in my society, and the issues they
have to struggle with, be they relationships between men
and women, girls endeavors and aspirations, and the
gender discrimination that most of us are forced to deal
with.
I can clearly relate to this novel. The stories used
therein are cross sections of those I hear about and see
everyday among girls of my generation. What stunned me
most, however, was the responses the author received: A
good part of these responses were negative, clearly
showing how narrow-minded and emotional some of us
appear to be.
I sincerely respect Al-Sanea s bravery in discussing
subjects our society still considers taboo, especially
that this was the first book she ever published. I read
most of the responses the author received, and counted
how many positives and how many negatives there were.
One that caught my attention was from a woman who said
that Al-Sanea should be a speaker of good virtues to all
women in our conservative society. Another response was
from a man who claimed that the novel was spreading evil
among and about young women in Saudi Arabia. In my
opinion, both of these readers misinterpreted Al-Sanea:
She did not write her book to be a spokeswoman, or to
try to persuade people to change their ways of life.
Besides, why would Al-Sanea want to spread bad qualities
about her gender and people, since she herself is a
Saudi female?
Just as important is the question as to why Saudis feel
that anything written by one of them should always be
taken as a trend being spread by the writer. All that
Al-Sanea did was tell a story one which happened to be a
taboo in our society.
I personally believe that we have finally come to see a
courageous woman from our own generation, with such
talent and daring to step up and address an issue that
is considered forbidden, though this issue is discussed
by each and everyone each and every day.
I also believe that what caught everyone s eye was the
book s title, The Girls of Riyadh , even though her
story talks about only four girls. I believe that many
who read the novel kept thinking about the title while
reading, which caused them to see the book as a
non-fiction documentary rather than a fictional novel.
Others were worried about what other and neighboring
Arab countries would think about us. Fact is, each and
every country has its own positive as well as negative
attributes. We cannot continue to sweep every negative
characteristic that we have under the carpet, and
continue to come across as the perfect and ideal
society. Even with some negativity, I continue to be
proud of being Saudi. Ask a Bahraini or an Egyptian, and
they will tell you many stories about how some of us
behave while on vacation in their countries. It is not a
secret anymore, and yet we all insist on denying it.
Let s not forget that for any society s problems to be
resolved, that society ought to address its own issues
with honesty, sincerity, and clarity. To that, it is the
duty of a writer every writer to provoke our thoughts,
make us question our lives and ways, and drive us to
create a debate among ourselves and with each other. In
my opinion, Al-Sanea and her book, Banat Al-Riyadh, did
exactly that.
Samar Fuad Al-Zayer is a Saudi student at Webster
University in Vienna, Austria. She can be reached at
thealzayers@yahoo.com.
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