Girls of Riyadh

Gamrah’s faith in her new husband is not exactly returned … Sadeem is a little too willing to please her fiancé … Michelle is half-American and the wrong class for her boyfriend’s family … While Lamees works hard with little time for love. The girls of Riyadh are young, attractive and living by Saudi Arabia’s strict cultural traditions. Well, not quite. In-between sneaking out behind their parents’ backs, dating, shopping, watching American TV and having fun , they’re still trying to be good little Muslim girls. That is, pleasing their families and their men. But can you be a twenty-first century girl and a Saudi girl?

Gamrah’s faith in her new husband is not exactly returned … Sadeem is a little too willing to please her fiancé … Michelle is half-American and the wrong class for her boyfriend’s family … While Lamees works hard with little time for love. The girls of Riyadh are young, attractive and living by Saudi Arabia’s strict cultural traditions. Well, not quite. In-between sneaking out behind their parents’ backs, dating, shopping, watching American TV and having fun , they’re still trying to be good little Muslim girls. That is, pleasing their families and their men. But can you be a twenty-first century girl and a Saudi girl?

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women--their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture--she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea's tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women--their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture--she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea's tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.