O’ the trials of the Saudi royal family. Not even the British royal family spends as much time and resources toward public relations as the House of Saud. That is because the former do not need it as much as the latter.

Photo Credit: AFP.

No one, not the Arabs or anyone else, buys into the crafted image of a pious and righteous family that the Saudis like to present to the world. The hedonistic princes are known in the brothels from London to Casablanca and their lavish spending while a third of their people live below the poverty line. The corruption infects nearly every family in the royal corp. Nightclubs, booze, drugs and sex while normal Saudis are severely punished for even the most mundane acts of inter-sexual meetings and alcohol consumption.

The late King Fahd [the King prior to the current reigning] often spoke with a religious tongue while C.I.A. reports describe a constant drinker and womanizer, and his medical records cited several STDs.

And now there is another case of the love-stricken Saudi princess.

The British government recently and secretly granted asylum to a princess who had born a child out of wedlock with a British man she was having an affair with.

The woman, unidentified; but known to be from a wealthy and prominent Saudi family and the wife of a Saudi royal claimed [with great justification] that if forced to return she would face certain death in her repressive Kingdom that routinely stones and beheads adulterers.

She met her British boyfriend in a visit to London, kept the affair secret and returned to London to give birth. Her husband, in-laws and family have broken off contacts with her.

I do not note her now well publicized case to tarnish her. She is one of the better royals whose crime is not really a crime at all. She is not some sex-crazed prince; she is a young woman most likely married to an unaffectionate husband whom probably has other wives as well. So in no sense am I impugning her by lumping her with the likes of King Fahd.

I raise her case only to note the degree the Saudi royal family will go to protect their image of perfection. The princess is not the first case. The British government has granted asylum to Saudi royalty in similar cases before.

But both the Saudi government and the British government, at the obvious behest of the Saudis, refuse to publicly acknowledge such cases because the royals protest at such information being public and it also would actuate press debate on the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia.

That debates has to happen. Enough with the protection of so cruel and backward a place!