Girls of Riyadh

I would like to express my deepest gratitude toward everyone who has helped me edit the English counterpart of my Arabic novel (Banat Al-Riyadh): my dear eldest brother Nasser, my best friend Aceel, my sister/ my rock Rasha and my wonderful editor at The Penguin Press in New York, Liza Darnton, who all tried their best so that my novel does not get lost in translation.

I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to my role model, Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, former Saudi ambassador to Britain, current minister of labor and brilliant poet and novelist, for his unflagging support.

Last but not least, I would like to remember the man who taught me how to write, my father, Abdullah Alsanea, may he rest in peace. I hope I would have made him proud.

GLOSSARY OF NAMES

The number 7 refers to an Arabic letter similar to the letter H in English. Arabs use numbers like 7, 3, 5, 6 to refer to certain Arabic letters that have no counterparts on an English keyboard. This is called the Internet language and is also used in cell phone text messages as well.

Seerehwenfadha7et: the name of the mail group created by the narrator. Seereh means memoirs or story; wenfadha7et, wenfadhahet means disclosed or exposed. The name was taken from a Lebanese talk show called Seereh Wenfatahet. It means “a story told” but the name got changed to wenfadhahet to reflect more of a scandalous scene.

I chose the characters’ last names to show where they come from. Just like any other place in the world, in Saudi Arabia you can tell a lot from where the man or the woman comes from.

P.S.Al means the.

Sadeem Al-Horaimli: of or relating to Horaimla, a city within Najd, the center of Saudi Arabia.

Gamrah Al-Qusmanji: of or relating to Qasim, a city within Najd, the center of Saudi Arabia.

Lamees and Tamadur Jeddawi: of or relating to Jeddah, a city within Hijaz, the west coast.

Mashael and Meshaal Al-Abdulrahman: a random name that can belong to any family with unknown roots (i.e., from an untraceable tribe).

Firas Al-Shargawi: of or relating to Sharqiyah, the east coast of Saudi Arabia.

The following family names are Arabic adjectives to describe the personality of each:

Rashid Al-Tanbal: the bonehead.

Faisal Al-Batran: the wellborn.

Waleed Al-Shari: the buyer, the purchaser.

Fadwa Al-Hasudi: she who hates to see other people more happy or successful than her.

Sultan Al-Internetti: of or relating to the Internet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RAJAA ALSANEA grew up in Riyadh, the younger of two daughters in a family of doctors and dentists. She is currently living in Chicago, where she is pursuing a degree in endodontics. She intends to return to Saudi Arabia after attaining her degree. She is twenty-five years old, and this is her first novel.

^* A very popular cartoon for the 1990s generation of Saudi Arabian children. Translated from Japanese, it’s a story of a boy trying to achieve his dream of becoming a soccer star.

^* An expensive car with completely tinted windows often belongs to a man who does not want his wife and daughters exposed to the eyes of young men looking for fun. Nowadays, tinting is prohibited by Saudi law for security reasons.

^* The weekend in Saudi Arabia is Thursday and Friday.

^* In Islam, a hijab is any kind of head covering that conceals the hair and neck of a woman.

^* The hadith are collections of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.

^* A famous Egyptian singer from the 1960s.

^* The Internet provider company in Saudi Arabia.

^* Sheikh Jassem Al-Mutawa’, a famous Kuwaiti Muslim televangelist who hosts a very well-known Arabic TV program called Happy Nests and is the chief editor of several magazines and the author of many Islamic books that discuss relationships between men and women, marriage and family matters.

^* Among the different subclassifications of Saudi society, there are the tribals and the nontribals. Between those two classes/sectors there can be no marriages. A tribal family is one that can be traced to one of the well-known Arabic tribes.

^*“Mama” can also be used as an expression to indicate surprise or fear (“Oh, God!”).

^* Amr Khaled is an Egyptian Muslim activist and preacher. His popularity has now grown all over Arab countries. He is one of the most influential televangelists and authors in the Arab world.

^** There is an Arabic proverb that says: “Better the shadow of a man than the shadow of a wall.”

^* Manfooha is a very old and urban area south of Riyadh, and Olayya is a bustling area in Riyadh where real estate prices are high.