Unsung Grievance and Unyielding Subjugation: Exploring the Trajectory of Resilience and Subalternation in Jean Sasson’s Princess: A True Story of Life behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper examines Jean P. Sasson’s Princess: A True Story of Life behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia (1992) as a pivotal narrative that exposes the deeply entrenched structures of patriarchy and the systemic subalternation of women in Saudi society. Written through the testimony of Princess Sultana, the text dismantles the illusion of wealth and religiosity as sources of freedom, revealing instead the contradictions of privilege and oppression that define women’s lives under authoritarian and gender-segregated configurations. By employing a testimonial discourse, the narrative not only embodies individual suffering but also articulates collective experiences of obscuration, erasure, and denial of agency. The methodological approach of this study is grounded in feminist literary analysis, with particular attention to how voice, silence, and representation operate as sites of resistance against dominant narratives. The paper argues that Princess functions simultaneously as testimony and critique, challenging the manipulation of cultural and religious discourses that strategically sustain women’s subordination. In doing so, it contributes to an expanded understanding of feminist interventions in contexts often shielded from external scrutiny. The significance of this inquiry lies in situating Princess as both a literary and political testimonial—one that illuminates the intersections of gender, power, and religion, while foregrounding the urgency of recognizing women’s lived realities as pivotal to the discourse of rights and justice in Islamic societies.