Girls of Riyadh Analysis

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GIRLS OF RIYADH Girls of Riyadh is a book written by a woman from Saudi Arabia named Rajaa Alsanea. It is a story about four Saudi women, their love life amidst the stringent Saudi customs. The story is in the form of weekly email sent by the author to random people telling them about the stories of four girls - Qamrah is extremely religious, Michelle is non-conformist, Sadeem is in love with the idea of love and Lamees who is highly pragmatic. The book tells about the relationship between men and women in the Saudi Arabia and how women have clearly defined social boundaries. In the end, Qamrah is a single parent living a life of a pariah with her parents. Michelle is successful professional and lives on her own terms. Sadeem after being dejected in love twice opens her own bridal store and eventually marries her cousin. Lamees is the only one of the four girls who finds both professional as well as personal happiness and marries the man she loves. MY EMOTIONAL CONNECT WHILE READING THE BOOK The main reason why I loved reading this book and why to this date I remember the story is that I was able to emotionally connect with the story. Apart from the 4 main protagonists, there are several other female characters whose personalities are very unique. Some are religious, some are bold and free-spirited, while some are timid. There were many instances in the book which invoked intense feeling of anger, hatred in me. There is this one particular instance, which made me feel both angry and surprise. The character of Qamrah has an arrange marriage with Rashid and they both move to Chicago. He absolutely loathes her. He asks her to remove her hijab. Inspite of being extremely religious and conservative she agrees to her husband’s need and stops wearing her hijab just to please him. Shockingly, he ridicules her even more saying the now that he has seen her without the

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