In addition to interviewing Molham, I wanted to get feedback on my topic from a wider audience. I asked a couple of questions to my followers on Instagram.
The questions included were:
Is there a constant fight between cultural identity & personal identity?
Do you agree with this term: “We are too Western for the Middle East and to Middle Eastern for the West?”
What are your thoughts on Saudi youth identity?
As a part of the ‘youth’, would you say you struggle with your identity?
Around 500 people saw the post, and around 130 responded.
I also managed to get comments on the last two questions, some were somewhat useful, while others were straightforward.
One that stood out was the idea of “balancing personal values and goals vs. societal expectations”. This is a huge issue in Saudi Arabia, especially in men. Since the kingdom is a male-dominated country, men are the ones who work and need to pay for the whole family. With the new changes, a woman can do whatever they please - work-wise, but it will always be the man who pays for everything. Hence, families push their sons into high positions like a doctor, lawyer or engineer. There is huge pressure on them, where some cannot pursue their dreams as it isn’t a good pay. Very rarely, you will find men who study or work in a field they wanted to.
From the responses I got back and after doing some more research, I decided to focus my outcome on the idea of “ the fight between cultural identity & personal identity”.