The Consequences of Love in Saudi Arabia



One of my belly dance friends gave me a book to read.  She picked it up at a greatly reduced price and liked the cover, not knowing that this book was more than a romance novel.  As she read, she thought of me.  Once she was finished she told me that she had a book for me to read.  It is called, The Consequences of Love, by Sulaiman Addonia. The story takes place in Saudi Arabia, the center of Islam and it's strict laws.  The place where men and women live separate lives. Women are forbidden. Love barely exists. Poverty and no connections, meant that a man could not marry. Within the first few chapters I read about sodomy, beheadings and the religious police. The story was intriguing. At a tender age, Naser and his younger brother Ibrahim were sent to Saudi Arabia to avoid the war back home, only to encounter a war of another kind.  His fight for the love of a woman began when Fiore dropped a note at his feet.  From that day forward, Naser's life would never be the same.  In school, dreams of the afterlife was so imposed on their lives that dreams on earth were forgotten. At 19, Fiore said that she was buried all of her waking life, including her dreams. Everything that she hoped for lay beyond the walls of her prison, which is called home. When she went out, her beauty was covered by a piece of cloth, and at home her intelligence and knowledge were shrouded by the walls of her room. Everything about her was concealed. The Consequences of Love is a dark and evocative testament to desire in an inhumane state.