Girls Of Riyadh – Beginnings
An unknown girl in her early twenties decides to tell the story of her friends. She is like a modern Scheherazade who narrates these stories every weekend. Her motivation is to avenge the tyranny of life and society against her friends. Each chapter in the novel starts with a piece of poetry, a verse from the Quran, or lyrics from a famous song that captured the idea of the chapter.
The Book Stirs The Media
The narrator sends e-mails from her internet group to the subscribers. Those e-mails, as the narrator forecasts in the novel, stir the media. Popular newspapers in Saudi like Al-Riyadh, Al-Watan and Al-Jazeerah are all buzzing – mirroring what happened in real life after the novel was published. This kind of forecasting adds reality and intrigue to the novel. In one segment, the narrator says that she will probably be interviewed on Al-Arabiya TV by one of the most important interviewers in the Arab World: Turki Al-Dakheel (his style is similar to Tim Sebastian in Hard Talk on BBC or Ted Koppel on ABC news) which also took place in real life.
The Girls Of Riyadh
The novel describes four Saudi girls who are studying at the university in Riyadh, the Capital of Saudi Arabia. Their names are Sadeem, Qamrah, Lamees and Mashael (her name is similar to Michelle in pronunciation. She is half Saudi and half American. Her American mother and friends prefer to call her Michelle).
The novel describes the relationship between men and women in the conservative Saudi-Arabian Islamic culture. Girls of Riyadh tells the story of four college-age high class friends in Saudi Arabia, girls looking for love but stymied by a system that allows them only limited freedoms and has very specific expectations and demands. There’s little contact between men and women—especially single teens and adults—but modern technology has changed that a bit (leading to young men trying everything to get women to take down their cellphone numbers). The Internet is also a new medium that can’t contain women and their thoughts like the old system could, and the anonymous narrator of the novel takes advantage of that: she presents her stories in the form of e-mails that she sends out weekly to any Saudi address she can find. Sex is described in this novel, and how men ignore women if they give themselves up before marriage.
The title of the novel is full of irony. It was taken from a song by a very famous Saudi singer and the internet address of the group was called “Memoirs Exposed” which is a twist on the name of a famous TV show called “Memoirs Disclosed”. The novel was also full with humour and laughs as the narrator comments on the events with her trademark witty style. For example, she describes how the girls dance in the wedding in a hilarious way and the way women look at each other with jealousy. She also describes how men walk in their ugly underwear in the house after marriage and makes fun of that.
The novel ends with one success which is the marriage of Lamees to her colleague in Medical School. It seems that Lamees learns from the mistakes of her friends and never repeats them. In fact, she plans a strategy to win her colleague’s heart after she saw him and fell in love with him at first sight. She uses everything at her disposal to lure him into her net. Her successful strategy culminates with a lovely wedding and a trip to Canada to obtain her boards in Medicine.
Introduction
The setting of the story is in a Saudi Arabian background where an unknown girl narrates tales to her peers every weekend. The story reveals theme of vengeance against her friends regarding dictatorship of life and society. The organization of the novel is using Quran illusions and verses from popular songs, which capture diverse ideas in the chapters. Girls of Riyadh is a self-proclaimed Saudi Sex and the city, outlining the existence of four teenage girls from the capital’s wealthy city. The protagonists are Sadeem, Qamrah, Lamees and Mashael. However, of the four girls, Mashael is partially American and Saudi. She bonds the two backgrounds of tradition and modernity. The girls hang out together as they share experiences of the oppressive nature of their traditions and society’s perception on girls. They set out to repel the expectations by interacting with their opposites through internet programs.
Summary
The persona in the novel distributes e-mails to different users highlighting events and stories that stir the media. The novel describes the connection between people in the customary Saudi-Arabian Islamic civilization. It revolved around four girlfriends searching for love, but hindered by the strict religion, tradition and expectation of the public. This is because of the reality that restrictions applied concerning contacts of men and women in that society. To avoid this traditional restriction, the teenage and single youth are embracing the use of technology by interacting through the internet. This enables the young men and women to interrelate with one another using cell phones or social media. This idea enables the narrator to convey her stories via e-mails, which she sends out on a weekly basis to any Saudi accessible online. Sex is also tackled in the book since men ignore women who want to participate in sexual activities prior to marriage.
Different literary devices are used to illustrate the intentions of the narrator with regard to the circumstances of the setting. Irony is evident in the title, Girls of Riyadh, which is supposedly derived from a popular Saudi lead singer and internet address of the group called “Memoirs Exposed”. This is ironical because of the implications that the girls faced in their daily lives despite the title, which seems to praise them. Another irony is girls seeking men for sexual favours instead of the opposite. The girls are portrayed as outgoing, extravagant and merry makers in a conservative society; hence, engaging in premarital sex.
Similarly, the book is also full of humorous events, for instance, the girls engage in illicit drinking and pretend to be men by posing as men in order to drive cars and dance in weddings. Humour is also described how men still wear traditional Shimagh in a modern era and walk in their unpleasant underclothes in the house after the wedding.
The novel concludes on a good mood and tone as Lamees is married to her Medical school colleague. This is a lesson to the audience that what a person aspires in life when still a child will eventually happen. This is true when Lamees picks up lessons from her childhood friends’ mistakes and vows not to repeat. In order to prove her transformation, she plans to seduce her colleague and fall in love with him. This positive strategy ends, with a lovely wedding and a tour to Canada, to acquire her boards in Medicine.
