I was born in Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, in 1997. After 6 months, I traveled with my parents to Canada, where my father was finishing his degree. Growing up, I moved a lot, from Vancouver to Ontario and everything in between. 4 years later, I had a little brother. I grew up in the Western Community with Middle Easter morals. Once a week, I would go to an Arabic school where I learned about my religion and meet other Arab children living far away from home.
Fast forward to 2003, I came back to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was a Reverse Culture Shock! I remember third grade being the hardest year. I went to an all girls international school full of little Arab girls who grew up in the Kingdom, then there I was, the only girl who didn’t speak proper Arabic. All I can say was it was a total struggle. I never participated in any Arabic related classes as I had to fear of messing up. I once did and I was the “talk” for a while. From grade 3 until 12 I had an Arabic tutor who helped me, I was never the best but always gave my 200%.
In terms of my name, I got bullied a lot. Daad is an Arabic name that is pronounced Da’ad or Da’ed. It consists of a letter that cannot be pronounced in English as it comes from the throat. I got called horrible names and there is no place to start. Even though that was many years ago, I still struggle with it today. I sometimes wished my name wasn’t my name, I wish it was a simple western name. But you can say, I am who I am today because of my name.
My identity is made up of two cultures. They shaped me into who I am. Friend and family, both good and bad, helped me know my true Identity.
2016, the year of new beginnings, I moved to the United Kingdom to pursue my dream in the Arts. Many people, both related and unrelated argued with me about choosing my major, as it isn’t a logical field to go into. I knew that if I weren’t to go into this field, I wouldn’t be me.
Being in London opened up doors I never knew were there. I learned a lot about myself. I found myself able to fit in this fast-paced community with different backgrounds.
This is a brief idea of what went on. My identity is something I struggled a lot, there were many aspects to it. But one important issue was the idea of my cultural identity vs my personal identity. I sometimes had to act “culturally specific” in some situations and showed off my personal identity in others as It wouldn’t be acceptable.
Words are usually hard for me to explain, hence I will be creating a narrative that will be expressed visually, that talks about the issue of cultural and personal identity that many young Saudi people struggle with.
Sometimes to understand who you are, you need to move away from everything you know and learn who you truly are.