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Rajaa al-Sanea (; born in 1981, on 11 September) is a Saudi writer who became famous through her novel '' Girls of Riyadh'' ( ). The book was first published in Lebanon in 2005 and in English in 2007. Al-Sanea grew up in
Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the ...
, Saudi Arabia, the daughter of a family of doctors. As of 2014, she is currently an assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago.


Education

She received her bachelor's degree in dentistry from
King Saud University King Saud University (KSU, ar, جامعة الملك سعود) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulaziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in the K ...
in 2005. She continued her education in the United States with the support of the King Abdullah scholarship program. In 2008, Al-Sanea received her master's degree in oral sciences from
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry evolved from the Columbian Dental College, founded in Chicago in 1891. The college informally affiliated with the University of Illinois in 1901, and was chartered as an official college ...
.


Career

Al-Sanea rose to prominence in 2005 via the publication of her debut novel '' Girls of Riyadh.'' The story follows the love lives of four young women, Gamrah, Lamees, Sadeem and Michelle –who is half Saudi and half American- through the form of a series of emails written by an unnamed narrator. Upon publication, the novel was immediately banned in Saudi Arabia, as the depiction of infidelity, pre-marital relations and homosexuality was seen as inflammatory material. During the controversy, Al-Sanea, who was in Chicago at the time, claimed to have received more than 1,000 emails a day with some containing serious threats towards her life. She also mentioned losing friends due to the contents of the book, as well as having her scholarship in the United States being threatened. Though the novel received backlash from the Saudi government, '' Girls of Riyadh'' garnered mass media attention, with many praising the author for taking a bold and uncensored approach in the depiction of the four young women. '' Girls of Riyadh'' was translated from Arabic to English in 2007 by
Marilyn Booth Marilyn Louise Booth (born 24 February 1955) is an author, scholar and translator of Arabic literature. Since 2015, she has been the Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at the University of Oxford an ...
. Booth was the original translator of Rajaa Alsanea's bestseller '' Girls of Riyadh''. However, in a letter to the ''
Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
'' in September 2007, she asserted that the author Al-Sanea and the publishers
Penguin Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain t ...
had interfered with her initial translation, resulting in a final version that was "inferior and infelicitous". Booth also wrote about this incident in a scholarly article titled "Translator v. author" published in a 2008 issue of ''
Translation Studies Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the vari ...
''. Despite the popularity of her debut novel'','' Al-Sanea has not turned to writing as a full-time career. Since returning to Saudi Arabia, she has served as a consultant endodontist and researcher in the stem cell therapy program at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh. In an interview with ''The National News'', the author said, “Dentistry is my job and writing will always be my passion”.


Awards

* Al-Sanea's ''Girls of Riyadh'' was long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award in 2009. *
Arabian Business ''Arabian Business'' (''AB'') is a weekly business magazine published in Dubai and focusing on global and regional news analysis. The brand is aimed at the English- and Arabic-speaking communities and is published in both languages. Its circula ...
released a list of the strongest and most influential Arabs under the age of 40 and Rajaa Al-Sanea ranked as the 37th. This list aimed to shed more light on the influential group of youths. They expressed that the names on this list will have a great impact on their societies not only now, but also in the future. The people on this list are not only influential within their own countries, but they are also internationally—something that
Arabian Business ''Arabian Business'' (''AB'') is a weekly business magazine published in Dubai and focusing on global and regional news analysis. The brand is aimed at the English- and Arabic-speaking communities and is published in both languages. Its circula ...
emphasise is worthy of drawing attention to.


Lawsuit

In 2006, two Saudi citizens sued the Ministry of Information, asking that the permission they had granted for the publication of ''Girls of Riyadh'' be withdrawn, and further requesting that importation and distribution of the book be prohibited and that al-Sanea be punished for writing it. The suit claimed that the book encouraged immorality and misinterpreted verses of the
Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
that are quoted in the book. The suit was rejected by the Court of Grievances.


References


External links

*
Interviews "The Girls of Riyadh" Author Rajaa AlsaneaCourt Rejects Case Against Rajaa Alsanea"Sex and the Saudi Girl"
feature in
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...
8 July 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanea, Rajaa Al- 1981 births Living people People from Riyadh Saudi Arabian novelists King Saud University alumni University of Illinois Chicago alumni Women novelists 21st-century Saudi Arabian writers 21st-century Saudi Arabian women writers