Death of a Princess

Do people remember the huge fuss the Saudis made over Death of a Princess, a film shown by British TV channel ITV in 1980?  It was inspired by the fate of Saudi Princess Mishaal bint Fahd al Saud, who was executed in 1977 for alleged adultery at the age of 19. The Saudi King expelled the British Ambassador.

The Observer took an oddly broad-minded view on the killing. Did Lonrho which owned it have interests in the Gulf?

The film gave a lopsided picture. It concentrated on the sexual adventures of bored princesses and virtually ignored the efforts of many Saudi women who are struggling with skill, intelligence and increasing success to equip themselves through higher education for a new role, and to widen their freedoms.
Saudi Arabia is a fast changing country with all the problems which spring from quick riches in a society which until a generation ago was a simple pastoral patriarchy. One of the temptations the European media needs to resist is the urge to headline whatever is wrong with Arab society while rarely reporting what is being done to put things right.
We need to remind ourselves that in the gracious days of Jane Austen’s England men, women and children were hanged publicly for over a hundred offences; that it is only 20 years since Ruth Ellis was hanged in an English prison for shooting her lover who deserted her, after she had had a miscarriage. And that even today our children can still legally be flogged in public.