Rajaa Al-Sanea: A Girl of Riyadh

Rajaa Al-Sanea: A Girl of Riyadh: "JEDDAH, 11 March 2006 - Twenty-four-year-old Rajaa Al-Sanea stirred up a hornet's nest with the publication of her first novel, 'Banat Al-Riyadh' or 'The Girls of Riyadh.' Reactions to the 319-page novel have, in some cases, been extreme. The novel deals with the lives of four young Saudi girls who must live according to the traditions of Saudi society. The girls are students at a university in Riyadh.

Al-Sanea has attained instant fame because of the raging debate over her novel which was first published in Arabic by Saqi Books in Lebanon last September. Now she is looking for an English language publisher. Nearly 250 articles have appeared about the novel, both here and abroad. Her critics and fans come from all age groups.

Al-Sanea's detractors contend there is nothing great about the book and offer a variety of justifications for their position. Some credit the book's success to its introduction, written by Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, a renowned poet and author. ''Banat Al-Riyadh' is a work that deserves to be read. I expect a lot from this author,' he writes in his introduction.

In trashing the book, one Saudi woman writer said: 'But for Dr. Al-Gosaibi's introduction, nobody would have given this novel a second thought.' Some others say the reason for Al-Sanea's popularity is her good looks. In an Associated Press report, Donna Abu-Nasr describes her as 'a petite brunette who wears an Islamic head scarf, like virtually all Saudi women.'

'This is the age of television and looks matter,' said a 30-year-old Saudi who read the book last week. 'Somebody got it for me from Beirut. Beauty drives the marketing of your product. Rajaa has the looks, and so even when the product, i.e. the novel, is bad it sells and is selling like hot cakes,' he said.

Al-Sanea's fans, whose numbers are legion going by the hits on her website (www.rajaa.net), say those who criticize are simply jealous of her success. They (the critics) say the style is atrocious. They say the language is far from classical Arabic. They say it is peppered with chatroom English and full of meaningless terms from the Internet. When Al-Sanea was asked about it, she was blunt. 'I wrote the first few chapters in classical Arabic, but I modified them later because I couldn't convince myself that women my age would use classical Arabic to speak to each other. I used colloquial language to improve communication with my readers.'

One Saudi woman journalist probably hit the nail on the head when she observed: 'It is our tradition not to talk about the ills of our society. We know there are problems in our society, but the general reaction is to keep quiet. We have been taught from an early age that if we talk about the ills of our society, people will laugh at us. We are seen as role models in the Muslim world. And even when we are not entirely perfect, we should pretend that we are. 'Banat Al-Riyadh' deals with four characters. They may or may not represent all of Saudi society. But yes, we do come across the four fictional characters in our daily lives. Probably Saudi society - and especially Saudi women - are so much in the spotlight that this novel has come in handy for people who want to take a peek into the lives of Saudi girls. My only problem is that it sheds only a negative light on Saudi women. People outside this country will take it as a definitive word on the girls of our country.' Many of Al-Sanea's critics would agree and they want her to change the title of the novel precisely because they think it gives the impression that it is true of all the girls in Riyadh."