An email interview with my favourite author-Jean Sasson

Jean Sasson- Author of several books about the Middle East

Books about Middle Eastern women and the injustice they face, have always been of interest to me. Therefore, I was naturally drawn to books that were written by Jean Sasson. I wanted to write about her for my factual story-telling exercise but could not get the interview done with her on time to meet the deadline. So here I am, finally writing about my favorite author. I even had the privilege of communicating with her through email. It all felt surreal!

I started reading Jean Sasson’s books when I was fifteen. The first ever book of hers that I read was ‘PRINCESS’.  It managed to leave me in tears. The injustice that was happening to women in Middle East was revealed so explicitly. Teenage girls were forced to marry men 5 times their age; women were punished using severe methods (drowning, stoning etc.). Basically, men in the Middle East treated women like slaves. I never thought that the situation in Middle East was that bad until I read her books. Jean Sasson’s books reveal the severe injustice, affecting women in Middle East, to the rest of the world.

Writing books about torture and abuse is definitely not an easy task as Jean Sasson revealed in our e-mail interview.  She said ‘the hardest part of any book is reliving and telling stories about people who were tortured, abused or in some cases, murdered. I used to weep when writing those stories.’  As a reader of her stories, I tear while reading her books so one could only imagine the amount of tears she sheds while writing books of such emotional nature.

From receiving threats to speaking with the son and wife of Osama Bin Laden, Jean Sasson shared with me a few of her experiences.  While writing the book about Princess Sultana, she received threats, as there was an element of danger for the princess’ life. In writing the story about Omar and Najwa Bin Laden, she got to speak with the wife and son of Osama Bin Laden and got to hear thrilling stories about the man, everyone wanted to know about. While writing the book titled Mayada, she had to live with the stories where young women were tortured and raped in the prison. Some of the women did not even make it out alive. I read that book as well and again, I was left in tears. The worst bit is that all of these are true stories, happening to real women. Her books made me feel so useless. I was reading about the situation in the Middle East and all I could do was cry.

I was curious to learn how Jean Sasson realized she wanted to become an author. So that was the first question I asked her. Her reply was, “I was such an avid reader and books always made my life more pleasurable and interesting. One day when I was reading a book by Hermann Wouk, a sense of destiny came over me and I told myself, one day I will do this -- I will write books that will inspire others and make people want to read.” She had read all the books in her small school library by the time she was 16 years old!  She has certainly accomplished her goal of making people want to read. Her books are so brilliantly written. Emotions felt by the heroines in her books are conveyed so beautifully in words that it makes her readers feel emotionally attached to the characters in her books.

Jean sasson’s favourite books are books about travel histories of early travelers to exotic places, such as the books written by Sir Richard Burton, a19th century British traveler, Freya Stark, Gertrude Bell and T.E. Lawrence. She is also a fan of all books on Napoleon and Sir Winston Churchill and Dr. Thomas Dooley, people who have altered history. She said, “to read the true stories experienced by these people are my greatest pleasure.”

I decided to use this opportunity to get some advice from my favorite author. I asked her what makes a good story. Her reply was that a true story is what makes a good story. She said that, “nearly every human being alive has a great story in them, as life on this earth is so amazing and totally exciting.  I like a story that is also set against a very interesting background.  That's why I am glad that I am able to write about people from the Middle East -- all the settings are very exotic and the cultures so little known to most people in the world.” The true stories that she writes about have gotten her many ardent fans. Jean Sasson ended the interview off with an advice for aspiring authors. She said that there must be passion for the topic and subjects you write about. There must also be a daily goal. For example, she always completes 5 pages a day when writing a book. She does not sleep till she gets the pages done! This shows that discipline is a very important quality that a writer should possess.

Communicating with Jean Sasson through email was really exciting and it was such a pleasure interviewing her. Jean Sasson is currently working on a book about a very unique Saudi woman and I just cannot wait to get my hands on the book!