The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation’s Cultural Forum hosted acclaimed Saudi novelist Dr. Rajaa Alsanea on Monday evening for an engaging conversation about her literary journey and the enduring impact of her groundbreaking novel Girls of Riyadh. Moderated by former Minister of Culture and author Basma Al-Nsour, the event brought together a distinguished audience of writers, intellectuals, and literature enthusiasts for a rich discussion on creativity, storytelling, and contemporary Arab literature.
Alsanea reflected on her literary journey, noting that her childhood dream was not to become a dentist but to see a book bearing her name on a library shelf. She credited her parents’ unwavering support for nurturing her passion for writing. Encouraged by her father—a strong advocate of education, a devoted lover of the Arabic language, and former Head of the Language Editing Department at Kuwait’s Ministry of Information—she developed a love of reading from an early age. She also acknowledged her mother’s persistent encouragement as instrumental in helping her complete her first novel.
Alsanea emphasized that a novel is neither a social report, a political statement, nor a historical document. Rather, it is a human attempt to understand the world—a window onto reality, not reality in its entirety. She noted that in the Arab world, literature is often expected to represent, explain, and defend society, a burden no literary work can realistically bear.
She added that elsewhere in the world, storytelling is recognized both as a creative endeavor and as an economic activity, and authors are acknowledged as having legitimate intellectual and financial rights to their work. In contrast, writing in many Arab societies is still often regarded as a noble hobby rather than a profession.
Alsanea stressed that literature offers a unique space in which people can live lives they have never lived and see the world through another person’s eyes. Without that freedom, she argued, literature would lose its most essential quality.
Rajaa Alsanea is widely regarded as one of the key figures associated with a notable shift in modern Saudi fiction. Her debut novel sparked extensive debate about the portrayal of women, the limits of openness in literature, the relationship between literature and society, and the novel’s role in addressing previously unspoken issues.
Born in Riyadh, Alsanea studied dentistry at King Saud University before continuing her academic career abroad. However, her literary reputation was established early through her first novel, Girls of Riyadh, published in 2005 and translated into English in 2007.
The novel broadened discussions about a new generation of Saudi fiction and prompted readers and critics to reconsider the power of storytelling to engage with everyday life and social realities that are often absent from official narratives. Critics viewed the novel as offering a rare glimpse into the private side of Saudi society and its social structures.
In Girls of Riyadh, Alsanea tells the story of four affluent Saudi women, exploring themes of love, marriage, family, friendship, disappointment, and social constraints. Using an innovative narrative format based on email messages, the novel became a generational account of a period of significant social change.
The book achieved widespread success both within the Arab world and internationally, establishing Alsanea as a prominent literary voice from the outset—not only because of its subject matter, but also because of its bold and direct portrayal of a social world that had largely remained outside the scope of mainstream Saudi fiction.