The World Motivation
I almost got kidnapped trying to find a taxi in the street. In Saudi Arabia, it's not normal for a woman to walk in the street alone, and I don't cover my face, so I am an open target.
“I almost got kidnapped trying to find a taxi in the street. In Saudi Arabia, it's not normal for a woman to walk in the street alone, and I don't cover my face, so I am an open target.”
I almost got kidnapped trying to find a taxi in the street. In Saudi Arabia, it's not normal for a woman to walk in the street alone, and I don't cover my face, so I am an open target.
I went to a technology conference in Germany, and there were these beautiful, model-like women standing there in front of the products. I asked a question, and she had no clue what the product was. She had to call someone from the back to explain it to me. To me, that's using a woman as an object. To me, that's totally wrong.
In May 2011, I drove a car in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to protest the kingdom's ban on women driving.
Women tell me they are different since 21 May - the day I was arrested - it's a positive change, they believe now.
I grew up in Saudi Arabia and India and Cyprus, and I lived in a war-zone myself, and, I mean, I had a pretty bizarre, I guess, nomadic childhood, and so I was really drawn to international relations and political science.
If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path I'd walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. And I don't mind saying that I don't invalidate any of those paths.
I was born in England, but then I lived in Calgary, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, India, Vancouver, London, Toronto, and now L.A.
Can you get a democracy in Saudi Arabia? These people talk about theocracy, not democracy. So I think it's a very tough situation.
My mother might find a thin gold chain at the back of a drawer, wadded into an impossibly tight knot, and give it to me to untangle. It would have a shiny, sweaty smell, and excite me: Gold chains linked you to the great fairy tales and myths, to Arabia, and India; to the great weight of the world, but lighter than a feather.