Princess Sultana's Daughters

to Riyadh, for our daughter had that
very day confronted the manager of a hotel in Monte Carlo,
demanding that he provide separate elevators in his establishment
for men and women, and advising him that unrelated members of the
same sex had no business confined together in such close
quarters.
    I rolled my eyes in disbelief, agreeing when
Kareem declared that Amani should be put into counseling when they
returned to the kingdom. Maha’s successful recovery from her
earlier mental unbalance had turned Kareem into a staunch believer
of psychiatric counseling.
    I lived a short moment of relief, thinking of
how Maha had rejoined our family as a responsible girl. My oldest
child’s thoughts now centered on her education and plans for a
normal life.
    When I reentered the room, my sisters were
involved in a heated discussion of the threat of militant
fundamentalism, which was now challenging our family’s leadership
of Saudi Arabia, and my thoughts returned to Amani and her extreme
interest in her faith. Each of my sisters stated that her husband
had expressed great fear of the growing gap between the monarchy
and the pristine ideological movement now gathering power. The
Islamic fundamentalist leaders are known to be young, educated, and
urbanized. This group preaches an uncompromising return to the
Koran and is on a collision course with our regime, which is linked
to the modernization and Westernization of the kingdom.
    I said little even though I had done much
investigation of the movement, for my own child was a part of an
extremist group that had indicated opposition to the monarchy. I
felt too close to the subject at hand and made myself busy
preparing pillows to place behind Reema’s head.
    I asked myself, what disturbances would I
live to see in the land I called home? Would my own child be a part
of the opposition that brought down the legitimate government of
Saudi Arabia?
    When talk of the Muslim extremists ran dry,
Reema said she had another bit of news that she wished to
share.
    I hoped that another one of my sins was not
going to be made public knowledge, and I tried to keep a blank
face.
    Reema spoke without emotion, saying that
Saleem had made plans to take another wife.
    While our mother had been greatly humiliated
by our father’s taking four wives, Reema was the first of my
sisters to undergo such an ordeal.
    My chest tightened and my eyes flooded with
tears, but Reema asked that none of us cry, for she would happily
live her life as an ignored wife. Nothing could shake her resolve
to live a life of peace, so long as she was not separated from her
children. She declared in a strong voice that she was happy, but
Reema’s eyes spoke a different truth.
    I knew my sister had loved Saleem with a true
and honest love. Reema’s reward for being a faithful wife and
loving mother had not come to her on earth.
    For her sake, Reema’s sisters made a pretense
of belief and congratulated our sister on her small victory.
    Nura announced that Nada had once more become
Ali’s wife. Our brother had signed a document giving Nada wealth in
her own right, along with a trip to Paris to purchase diamonds and
rubies fit for the queen of England.
    When Tahani asked how he had overcome the
religious edict that forbade him to remarry Nada, I was not
surprised to hear that Ali had hired a Saudi cousin to wed Nada
without consummating the union. After the marriage, a divorce had
taken place. Then Ali and Nada had wed again.
    Remembering the teachings of Islam concerning
such deeds, I told my sisters that what Ali had done was not
allowed. The Prophet himself said that God curses men who are
parties to such an arrangement, for it is nothing more than a trick
against God and is considered a grave matter.
    “Who is going to intervene?” Sara asked.
    Nura admitted the truth—no one. “But God
knows,” she added, and each of us felt great sympathy for Ali, for
he had piled yet another sin upon his soul.
    The evening was coming to an end when the
telephone rang once again. One of Nura’s servants came and said
that Tahani was wanted on the telephone.
    Those of us who had left our loved ones in
Monaco thought perhaps there was another crisis and told Tahani to
spare us the details of our children’s follies.
    When we heard her cry out, we rushed to her
side. Once she replaced the telephone on the hook, it took us many
moments to calm our sister, and our fears were high that a member
of our family had met with