American Chick in Saudi Arabia

Just finished reading the second book by Jean Sasson and a third is on order. A vivid account of what it is like to live in Saudi Arabia for those who accept the culture and those who don't. Can't wait to read all her books.

J'ai lu tous les livres du série Princess du Jean Sasson et je les ai adorés.En ce qui concerne ce livre, j'ai bien aimé le fait que l'auteur parle de son propre expérience enArabie Saoudite Je le recommande vivement..

Non ho ancora terminato di leggere questo libro , anzi , sono agli inizi , ma sembra molto bello !

I ordered the book with great expectations but it was very hastily written, some spelling and grammar mistakes and hardly any story, just some haphazard anecdotes. I am fond of Jean Sasson's writings, did not expect this. Plus, the book was very thin. At an amount of over Rs 900, a complete waste.

I greatly enjoyed American Chick in Saudi Arabia, the first part of Jean Sasson's memoir. Jean and I were contemporaries in the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She was the Queen Bee, the executive head of administrative and secretarial services. Among her many responsibilities Jean had twenty female secretaries to look after, a formidable task in itself, her bevy were mostly white, western and attractive to predatory Saudi males. I was one of the staff physicians, chief of gastroenterology.Having written extensively about Saudi Arabia in my memoir,   I was particularly fascinated by her take on her life and her views of the Magical Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our perspectives were different yet many of our opinions run parallel - for instance our views on the inferior place of women in respect to men. And yet I found delight in comparing our experiences.When Jean first encountered a Saudi customs officer at Riyadh airport the young man was clearly bowled over by this American Chick with long blonde hair and said he hoped to see her again. My first encounter with a customs officer was with a young heavily-bearded Muslim whose ambition was to discover anything offensive that infidels were bringing into his country, the Kingdom of the holy shrines of Islam. The only despicable material he found in my baggage was a Punch magazine I had bought at London's Heathrow airport. Punch was a magazine of typically English humour which never ever carried anything of a smutty nature; but my man found a photograph of young ladies in swim-suits reclining around the rippling blue waters of a swimming pool. It was part of an advertisement for Kodak 35mm films. He shouted at me, he declared I was evil but because God was kind, "Allah Karim," he would forgive me, but next time he would send me to jail.These and many other vignettes recalled for me half-forgotten and mostly pleasurable memories. Being a man I met very few Saudi women socially but being a doctor I met many as patients. I recall one morning when I strode into my consulting suite and found an old Saudi lady sitting cross-legged on the examination couch. She was dressed only in a flimsy cotton examination gown which tied at the back - her face was uncovered. On seeing this European infidel, and she with an uncovered face, she immediately pulled the gown up over her face, revealing all her lower parts (from chest down) in all their drooping and wrinkled glory... but her modesty was intact, her face was covered.Jean gives great and detailed descriptions of her encounters with Saudi women, accurate descriptions of such events as weddings and a daring episode when she disguised herself as a Saudi female in the traditional black head-to-toe garb. She visited a souk in that dress; had a patrolling muttawa (religious policeman) spotted her for what she was she would have been in a lot of trouble. He would undoubtedly do more than just thrash her with the cane he always carried. Jean has a sympathetic nature and gives a good account of the emotions stirred in her by her experiences. Her description of her encounter with an infant with hydrocephaly (a very large head due to blockage of brain fluid circulation) is touching and equally touching the plight of the baby's mother.Evidently American Chick in Arabia resonates strongly with me but if I can take an objective stance I have to say that it is an easy read, full of interest and a view of a repressive world which still exists, albeit since our time there have been a few concessions to modernity. I wish I could share her view that their lives would dramatically change for the better if only Saudi women would unite as per the Suffragette Movement. The roots of the male-dominated Saudi culture are deep and only by liberalisation starting from the top will the lot of women improve. That will mean modifying the extreme Islamic fundamentalist views of the Wahhabi cult which was an integral part of the unification of tribes which originally formed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.I am forever in Jean's debt, she helped rescue me when I was jailed in Riyadh, but that's another story. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to the next part of Jean Sasson's American Chick in Saudi Arabia.