PS I just clicked through to your list of publications and CV. Impressive! Also enviable list of visiting professorships (especially Paris!!) and one to my maternal grandparents region, Le Marche (both from Fano, and lived in Pesaro before immigrating to Canada).

A little economics expertise wouldn’t hurt in the comments on the poverty in Saudi posts! LOL: ) Perhaps not enough of a diversion from everyday work.

Amen, Sandy!

You’re welcome and shukran.

I agree that women in these situations, including Asa as Sudeiri, have immense, though unacknowledged, power. It reminds me in British history of the power of Eleanor of Aquitaine, or in more contemporary times the role the late Queen Mother played in bolstering King George VI and effecting policy and tone of the Royal family especially during WWII. The Capetian Kings were so powerful in France because of the capacity to produce 10 generations of competent male heirs when other families weren’t able to do so and so were weakened in power. In this way the women of the Capetian kings were powerful in their own right.

I am certainly aware that Asa has great power at the very least as the mother of the “Sudeiri 7″ whose sheer numbers make them a prominent force with the strength of ties that being full brothers confers, let alone their tribal connections.

I have done a series of posts on the Royal marriages and their impact on Saudi. including its history, and touched on many of the issues you addressed here. I also reflected on the power of various women, sisters, wives or mothers of the Kings whose role as adviser and leader behind the scenes was clear but less well documented than the history of the men for cultural reasons.

You may wish to read the series of posts which start with an Introduction, then 4 parts focusing on a specific Al Saud each, and a Reflections post on the prior ones, then another post on the Royal intermarriages amongst royals of the GCC and MENA, and how they affect politics in the region.

The RoyalSaudi/nonSaudi blog category in the sidebar leads to the 7 posts, or you could start here:

Royal Saudi/non-Saudi Marriages and Their Children: Introduction

or here (includes a summary)

Royal Saudi/non-Saudi Marriages and Their Children: Reflections

and work through the others.

I hope you will enjoy them and comment on anything of interest.

I think the key here, ie in this thread, though, is to give more overt and acknowledged power to all Saudi women, and to have them contribute more fully to society.

Thanks again for both your comments.

Also, it should be kept in mind that the internal politics of the royal family is also very much the tribal politics of the Kingdom, as Abdulaziz unified the Kingdom partly by marrying daughters of tribal leaders after he defeated them in battle and incorporated their territories into the KSA (always divorcing one of his wives when he did so, thereby staying at three at any time so that he could marry on the spot, as it were, when necessary). As the lead wife, Asa had greater knowledge of all these personal and political matters through the wives and their sons and their tribes. So, she had vast knowledge as well as vast unofficial authority, and reportedly she used it fully to the end of her days, ordering what her various sons did in pretty much all matters from the personal to the political.

Btw. the conversations you have here aren’t private nor exclusive. Anyone might feel compelled to comment on something you write. That is the point of a blog, though people do stay out of certain discussions by choice. Otherwise, it is assumed you would be using other modes of communication.

When I feel you deserve to be contactedI I’ll ask you for your email address, thank you.