Mrs Sybil Powell

Inshallah: a Love Story Contrasting Saudi and Western Family Life (Volume 1) Mrs Sybil Powell

Jinya a wilful but otherwise a conventional Saudi girl had her life turned upside down at Abba airport when she admired an English expatriate, Mark Maxwell. Through a series of fateful situations they meet and fall in love, breaking the civil and religious laws of the country. Fighting against all the difficulties they plan their future together, only to be discovered by her brother. He had the agonising task of chooseing between his religion and his sister and to a faceoff with Mark his friend. Eventually deciding for his sister he is now set against his father who is of an older generation with strongly held religious views. Originally written in 1978 it is of that time when Saudi Arabia had recently become a united country but a country of contrasts, between the more and less religious elements, between the rich and the poor, between a desire to modernise and a desire to maintain the discipline of the old. This forms the background to the novel and highlights the challenges facing the young couple. The end leaves the reader to make up their own mind as to rights and wrongs of the tale.