‘Diary of a Saudi girl’ fascinates American society

Majd Abdul Ghani. (Courtesy: npr)

CAIRO: An American radio station hosted 19-year-old Saudi Majd Abdul Ghani, where she narrated several excerpts from episodes of her daily life in the Kingdom, attempting to present an image of the real Saudi girl, which is usually misrepresented in the Western media.
The "Fast Company" news website, on May 1 described the radio episodes provided by the Saudi girl as "stunning," noting that she has “provided a distinctive narrative voice to many of the details that occurred during the two years of her life in the Kingdom, and the narrative voice still has a distinctive impact on listeners.”
The website explained that Majd Abdul Ghani, a student at the Faculty of Medical Analyses at King Saud University, would not agree to go on the radio's program, broadcast by the National Public Radio (NPR) station, unless she knew that she would be able to give a real and realistic picture of the lifestyle experienced by Saudi teens in the UK.
The website quoted Majd saying that she hopes to erase the common stereotypes in the minds of the West about Saudi women: “I do not want the Western listener to put me in the same stereotype that used to be drawn for Saudi women in his mind."
For his part, the program’s producer confirmed that the Saudi teen’s diary was chosen from 1,000 contestants, for two reasons: the unique and sincere impact of her distinctive tone of voice, and the fact that the Saudi girl’s experience is unique.
Majd lives in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the countries most committed to the implementation of Islamic Shariah. She was married at an early age to the son of her mother’s friend, whom she had only met twice, accepting his marriage proposal because of the respect he’d shown to her dreams.
She managed to achieve great success in her favorite sport, karate, and earned a green belt. She also began to prepare for a master's degree in the field of medical genetics.
Majd focuses on showing realistic excerpts through the episodes about her good relationship with her four brothers and her father who was worried about her femininity in practicing karate. However, he bowed to her desire to continue practicing this sport.
She said that she worked on recording the live audio excerpts of her life since Oct. 31, 2013.