Princess Yasmine
By Princess

Scheming power hungry sisters conspire to rob their little brother the prince of his birthright and steal the throne themselves. Will he endure as the kingdoms newest princess.

Ali had never seen such a display of power in his entire life. He was the young Crown Prince of his fathers Kingdom. His father was King Abdullah Aziz Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia, and the Commander of the armed forces of the Kingdom. His father had invited his eldest children to watch the years annual military parade in celebration of Eid Ul Fitr.

The young prince admired his father. He loved his father more than anything else. While at times, the young prince disagreed with his father on some issues he still admired him. In his opinion, there was such a thing as being too conservative. His main disagreement was over women. His father was in line with the super strict conservative Sunni interpretation of Islam. He called himself a Salafie. They tried their best to follow the scripture as strict to the original way when the holy prophet was alive, as possible. Maybe too far in his opinion. He didn't like how women were treated in the kingdom. He thought that they should have more liberty and authority over their lives. He agreed with his sister. He never expressed his opinion to anyone. He was too young for anyone to care yet. But he resolved himself that when he became king, that he would make those changes.

He sat on a high podium with his father and with his sisters and brothers watching the majestic display of the Kingdoms new found power. His Father had a specialized area made on top of the enormous Prophet mosque in Madinah city to overlook the parade. The massive enormous columns on the mosque jutted up the sky behind them. The mosques large green dome was behind them. The nations large green flag was flapping in the wind behind them. The young prince was awed as he watched column after column of men in the kingdoms military fatigues carrying the flag march past the enormous mosque and turned in perfect military precision and marched down the street to a area where they would stop. Grand symbols of the Kingdom were displayed on enormous billboards. His father told him he had modeled his military parade to be like Russia's old grand may day parades. The soldiers were not the last. After the million soldiers marched past, the kingdoms armor divisions would roll past with their massive guns and tracks. Large artillery pieces came next and then, the rockets. Large mobile ballistic missiles lumbered past. It was a military parade worthy of the old days of the Soviet Union. Except this wasn't. It was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The soldiers were waving green flags instead of the blood red. Large Arabic holy scripture from the Quran Surah were inscripted on the flags and billboards and oversized flags.

His father had totally industrialized the nation in less than ten years. The nation under his fathers leadership had built their own arms plants, mining industry, they were building their own arms, tanks, aircraft. They had even built massive shipyards and laid down their fist series of large cruisers and aircraft carriers.

After more than a million of the Kingdoms soldiers had stopped and assembled themselves in rolls in front of the Kings Podium, he stood up and saluted. He was about to give a speech to the nation.

"Soldiers of the Kingdom, Citizens, I am addressing you to apologize. I am not unaware of the strife that has came into this peaceful nation. My daughter whom I had appointed the guardian of the law has introduced reforms that are not popular. As of this moment, I am stepping in to address this. I as King, am now canceling those. My daughter Princess Nayifa had good intentions to improved the lives of this Kingdoms women by giving them power over their family. I understand the religious clerics of this Kingdom disapprove and it has caused strife and dissatisfaction. This is an issue we need to move on more delicately.

He glanced at his sister and she was glowering in hatred at her father in anger. His speech went on for more than forty minutes. She got angrier and angrier as his speech went on. But She was happy when he announced that she would remain in her position.

His father told him he had some things to attend to and his sister was going to take him home. He wasn't happy about that but he could not really do anything about it either. She wasn't happy to have him either. They didn't get along well but she took the boy back to their palace in Riyadh City. His father had to meet with a ambassador from the European Union that night so he was alone with his sisters.

The crown Prince Ali and his elder sister Nayifa were a contrast to each other. Ali was small for his young age. He stood at a meager four foot and two inches tall. His sister was twenty years old and she stood over six feet tall. While he had soft feminine features his sister had a strong dominant body. Ali's face was very lovely. he had soft rounded cheeks, his chin narrowed into a easy point and his light hair grew long in soft waves. His sister told him he looked like a girl his age. He was withdrawn, he wasn't very outgoing or dominant. By contrast, his sister was strong, She stood over six feet tall, and while she also looked like a woman, she has a very powerful persuasive personality. She could also be very mean as young Ali found out. She often picked on him and called him little Jasmine. His father tried to stop her from picking on him, but with little luck. He could be persuasive too but he didn't want to come down too hard on her.

There were times when the elder Princess Nafiya wished that she were a man. But only some times, she was glad that she wasn't born like that. She was glad she was a woman. She couldn't stand men. She hated now narrow minded and bigoted men were. She thanked Allah that she was a woman with the insight and intelligence a woman possesses.

As he was in his lavishly adorned bedroom thinking about his lot in life, his door flew open. He looked up to see one of his fathers servants, he told the young prince, "Your father has requested the whole family attend a reception. Most of them are there. You and your Sister must come now."

He stood up and said, "I will get ready Abu. "

He nodded and backed out of the room as he redressed.

He walked out of his bedroom neatly dressed for a official diplomatic reception to find no one around. He wondered down the lavish halls of his fathers palace. He went down the steps to see his sister talking with some man that he never met. A few things sparked his suspicion. One, was that it wasn't custom for a woman to be alone with a man that wasn't a family member. Especially a Royal Princess. The other that there was something about this man that sparked fear in him. He really looked scary. Young Ali was glad no one could see him. She told him, "Good work Shaikh. It is all going as we have planed. Wait until the young prince is there. The whole family should be there in an hour. Now go."
The man left and he ran up the stairs to wait. The servant came soon and his elder Sister Nayifa came up for him. She told man that she would take the young prince. He didn't have much of a choice since she was a Royal Princess and she took his hand and told him, "Come with me."

Getting to the diplomatic reception took longer than she had planned. Nayifa was getting more upset as she tried to get to reception for the U. S. State officials. It took nearly an hour and a half. It was all over by that time.

Their car was blocked by police vehicles at the U. S. consulate. The place was smoldering. One of the Police strolled up to her car and she lowered the window. "Oh Princess Nayifa. We are so glad that you weren't in there when the attack happened. Let her in."

They came in and he saw that the building was bombed. It had collapsed on the rest of his family. He was told that the King, his wives, along with his twelve brothers and sisters were killed in the terrorist attack. Two of his sisters and him were the only survivors.
His sister spat out, "Those idiots."

They were taken back to the palace and increased security was placed around them. A meeting was arranged to discuss what was going to happen to the Kingdom now?
They had to prepare for the royal funeral of the king, as well as the other victims. For some reason that Ali did not understand yet, his sister took a large part in arranging everything. He guessed because she was the oldest. It was about seven hours after the horrible attack, when they were lead into a large room in the palace. One of the government ministers was to read the wishes of their father. What was left the royal family was there. Young Prince Ali, His surviving sisters, Princess Nayifa and Princess Aliya were sitting on one side waiting. The took out a paper and started reading, "The young Crown Prince will take the throne. He is the Prince but, he is under age to lead our country. King Abdullah had a plan. The Princess Nayifa will take temporary leadership the country until the young Prince is eighteen years old. Prince Ali, Nayifa will be your guardian until you are eighteen. The royal estate will be in her name until you are eighteen. Do you understand?"

He nodded and groaned inwardly. Nayifa smiled. He would be surprised if he was still alive at eighteen. He understood and so did his sisters. She stood up and thanked the minister. She noticed how her little brother was afraid now. She took his hand and lead him out.

He knew his life would never be the same. His sister looked down at the boy and told him, "We will mourn now, Ali. It is almost time for the Isha prayer. You need to get ready to go the al-masjid and pray for our father. Lets go home. first. I have arranged our fathers funeral for tomorrow night. It will be at Riyadh's Grand Mosque. Be there at five PM. He nodded as his sister took him into their house first. Ali wondered why his sister was taking him to their house. He looked out the window at Riyadh. He saw the glimmering buildings of the nations capital and a lot of the people were in mourning of their King. The men and women were adorned in black instead of the usual cheerful colors they usually wore.

Something was off as Ali walked though the door to the palace. Things were more than just different. He walked up the staircase to the second floor where the bedroom suits were. The door to his bedroom was locked. Nayifa said, "Your bedroom is being redone, Princess. Don't worry yourself, Princess Aliya is your size and age and you can borrow her clothes for the time being. Lets get something for you in her bedroom!"
He was stunned. "Nafiya, she is a girl. I can't wear her stuff."

His cheek exploded into pain from her slap. He was shoved into his sisters bedroom. "You can and will, Princess. You are going to have to adjust to a new life. You aren't a prince anymore. You are nothing. Now, that I run this country. I will not allow you to grow up and take it from me just because you are a damn boy. Got it?"

"That is how it is. The people will never accept you, Sister. How can you stop me?"
She shoved her face inches from his face in a threatening manner, "I have the loyalty of the army. Any resistance will be shut down hard. They will accept me or else. As for you, I can guarantee you will never assume the throne. You will do what I say if you want to live. DO you think they will accept you after you are seen wearing your sisters pink outfits. The ministers will never allow you to run our country. Now put this on, Princess Yasmine."

In less than twenty minutes, he was adorned in his sisters cute pink prayer outfit. It was humiliating, even his head was even covered in her pink hijab. He was wearing a pink traditional Arabian woman's Abayah, an Arab style conservative dress that women often wear. It was very humiliating.

They were headed out as he was wearing that. They expected him to go to the grand masjid in Riyadh wearing it. And he realized that he didn't have any choice.
He realized that it was quite a chance. As he went into the masjid, and immediately headed toward the males side where they prayed. Luckily, his sister grabbed him and turned him toward the females area. At prayer times, men and women prayed in their own area. So he found a place with the women and placed his rug down and stood up. He recited the first part of the prayer and knelt down and prostrated down. He went though the entire ritual for his first time as a female and wondered what was next.

***
Authors note. This was a very difficult story to write and it will be more difficult as time passes. I had to buy alot of books and read alot of websites to write on this subject matter. I admit I knew very little about Islam and that culture. If I made any errors please tell me. I will try to correct them.
I dont want any flames because of the deep religious theme in this story but, I couldnt avoid it.