Mind: "Banat Al Riyadh" … Work that deserves appreciation …

I think that by now, almost everyone had heard or read something about this work that created a lot of conflict in the Saudi community, and maybe in the region at large; I am referring to the novel "Banat Al Riyadh" for Raja'a Abdullah Al Sane'.

I have tried to pick up this book from our bookstores in town, but it was no where to be found, and it seems that the banning that was forced on it in Saudi has extended to reach the freedom that our own bookshelves enjoys most of the time.

After all my attempts to find this book failed, I resorted to the only left method; purchasing it online and finally got the book through "Adab wa Fan".

Before turning the cover to start my journey with a new book, I took a look at the back and read a nice comment by Ghazi Al Quseibi, and I said to myself: if such a great writer of our time gives such a comment on this book, it must be good and worth reading.

I started reading and the pages kept turning; and I found myself fascinated by the author's writing style that kept flowing, till I realized that I finished the 319 pages in one day literally. I really could not let the book down and was so into the characters, lived their turmoil and tragedies, was happy for their happiness and felt sorry for them at times.

The book is a collection of emails that the author started sending to an email group. She used to send an email every Friday and then sitting back and enjoying the reaction that included discussions in workplaces, some newspaper columns, some magazine articles and a lot of hate mail to the author herself.

The author succeeded in exposing the insider edition of what really goes on in the closed community that the heroines lived in. The four friends presented different models of modern Saudi women who are struggling in a society that insists on pushing the woman backwards, and I have to say that I admire and respect all these women that are truly out there fighting to induce change and make significant difference.

Some might argue that this is not a true representation of Saudi community or women for that matter, and this might have some truth to it, however; we cannot deny that these models do exist and not only in Saudi, but also in the Arab world as a whole.

Reading the stories of these 4 magnificent girls made me really happy that I live in a country that succeeded in liberating its communities enough to make us lead successful careers and create an opportunity for us to become independent, and when the man becomes a part of our lives, we have the ability to become interdependent with him, for that; we are truly lucky.

As I was reading the stories and following up on the events; I kept remembering the other famous four friends who were completely different in personalities, yet they shared a wonderful relationship and their friendship was stronger than men and time itself. Of course I am talking about Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte; the main characters in the very popular show; "Sex and the City"

I really recommend that you grab this book and read it; if not to get an internal view of these ladies' closed lives, read it to get a feel of the author's great writing that promises her with a bright future should she decide to pursue it, and promises us with good reading material that is highly needed in our world of today.

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