Jean Sasson: A New Orientalist
By Vijay Mehta,
Scholars’ Press, 216 pages, $120
Vijay Mehta’s previously acclaimed book “The Economics of Killing” focused on the humanitarian crisis of poverty. Mehta wrote that the crisis has been created by wealthy nations and rich companies striving for and achieving world domination at the expense of humanity. He has now turned his attention to a different subject that may well give him a new following among the readers of popular nonfiction.
In his latest book, “Jean Sasson: A New Orientalist”, Mehta shifts his focus entirely to the Middle East — “a geographic region that is the centre of religious and political turmoil and needs to be understood in a balanced perspective”. Mehta calls American writer Jean Sasson a new orientalist, based on her travels and books. According to Mehta, Sasson “presents the strength and weaknesses of the common Middle East people in her works without any hegemonic viewpoint which was seen lurking in the European and British authors”.
Reading Mehta’s assessment, one is reminded of other popular and well-known orientalists, such as Dame Freya Stark, famed traveller and writer; Gertrude Margaret Bell, writer, traveller, political officer, archaeologist and spy; T.E. Lawrence, British Army officer famous for his role of a liaison in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire (famously portrayed in the film “Lawrence of Arabia”); and Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, English explorer, writer, linguist, diplomat and spy. Indeed, one suddenly realises that yes, the majority of the previous orientalists were travelling, writing, and often spying on behalf of the British government.
Surprisingly, since the 19th and early 20th century, few orientalists — other than the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, with his controversial book, “Orientalism” — have appeared on the literary scene. According to Said, in the academic world, anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient is a latent orientalist, while general orientalists are writers and travellers. Additionally, Said wrote that orientalism was a “significantly male-oriented world view” and that “in general has had sexist blinders rendering Oriental women objects of a male power-fantasy”.
But according to Mehta, there is a new orientalist who doesn’t have any hegemonic viewpoints and whose female perspective dispels many of the sexist renderings in previous authors’ works. Sasson, who, as we learn from Mehta, travelled alone to the Middle East and along the way became an ardent supporter of humanitarian and feminist issues, has brought to light compelling human stories that would have never been heard if she hadn’t written them. Sasson lived for a long time in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi Arabia. After leaving Saudi Arabia, she continued her travels, becoming intimately connected with the region over a period of 30 years.
Mehta writes, “In the last phase of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century, Jean Sasson, the American writer, emerges as a new orientalist on the international horizon through the publication of her books. Just as the Chinese travellers, Fa-Hien and Huen-Tsang gave an elaborate account of fifth- and seventh-century socio-cultural and religio-political Indian life, Jean Sasson’s writings throw ample light on the religious, social, cultural and political life of the Middle Easterners in the twentieth century.”
Mehta shows Sasson’s wide range of books (now 12) in a new and interesting light. He begins with a preface and overview that details the history of orientalism, which is interesting enough, particularly for non-scholars who would not have considered the impact orientalists have had on the world. But Mehta’s book really comes to life when he focuses his full attention on the books written by Sasson — stories that provide great insight into the Middle Eastern countries where her heroines lived, worked and suffered.
Chapter by chapter, Mehta describes how Sasson immaculately records the great events in the lives of her subjects, while detailing the laws, cultural expectations and political dynamics of the country where they live, be it Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, or Afghanistan. Mehta writes that Sasson has “portrayed the life of the Middle East people faithfully, truly and graphically …”
Sasson’s books already claim millions of readers, and now “A New Orientalist” will have scholars pay attention to her.
