Soheir Khashoggi, a sister of Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian arms dealer, has drawn partly from her own experiences to write a book. In her case it is a novel, "Mirage," a tale of romance, polygamy and sibling relationships in a fictitious Middle Eastern country.
The book, which she said has been banned in Saudi Arabia, is published by Forge.The main character is an abused wife who flees from her husband with the protection of her brother, a character who is a composite of Khashoggi's brothers Adnan and Essam, she said.
In Saudi Arabia, "the women accept their lives and stay with their men," she said before a party given for her by Adnan Khashoggi in his apartment on the 46th and 47th floors of the Olympic Towers in New York.
"If they run away, the parents say, `You married this man, and you have to deal with it.' But some women try to escape."
Soheir Khashoggi, 49, who considers herself an escapee, was helped out of two marriages by her brothers, the first an unhappy arranged marriage and the second to "a womanizer," she said.
Her brothers helped her and her three daughters re-establish themselves in the United States. Khashoggi now lives in Cos Cob, Conn., where she paints and is working on her second novel.
More than 200 guests turned up for the party, which was confined to the building's 46th floor, and roamed the four huge living rooms.