Two Years in the Life of a Saudi Girl, Revisited

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we first met Majd Abdulghani, she was 19 years old, living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We gave her a recorder to keep an audio diary about her life.

Majd chronicled her dreams of being a scientist, her resistance to having an arranged marriage, and what it was like to be a teenage girl living in one of the most restrictive countries in the world for women. Her story first aired in 2016.

A lot has changed in Majd’s life over the past nine years. Last year, she completed her doctorate at Oxford University, where she was Saudi Arabia’s first Rhodes Scholar. She and her husband have a four-year-old daughter, and they recently moved home to Saudi Arabia after several years abroad.

Saudi Arabia has changed a lot, too. Back in 2016, women weren’t even allowed to drive. Now they can. And many more women have careers now—including Majd. She’s now a successful scientist working for a company based in Riyadh.

We recently met up with Majd while she was in Boston for a conference. Here's her diary from 2016, along with our conversation about how things have changed since then.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Our fellow Radiotopians at The Heart are back with a new season.
0:05.0	On The Heart, producer Caitlin Press creates cinematic stories about intimacy.
0:10.0	This time, Caitlin revisits No, her acclaims series about navigating boundaries and sex and romance,
0:17.0	and what happens when no isn't taken for an answer.
0:20.0	On the last season, which dropped during the first Trump presidency,
0:23.6	Kaelan interviewed male friends, ex-boyfriends, and even her own father about consent.
0:28.6	This season, she's back with even more deeply personal conversations,
0:33.6	all begging the question of how far we've come since Me Too,
0:36.6	and why coercion is so common in the first place.
0:40.3	The stories are heartwarming, gut-wrenching, and told with care.
0:44.1	Listen to know by the heart wherever you get your podcasts.
0:50.2	Radiotopia.
0:52.6	From PRX.
0:56.9	From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries.
0:57.6	I'm Joe Richmond.
1:01.3	Today on the show, two years in the life of a Saudi girl.
1:02.5	And an update.
1:10.5	When we first met Majd Abdu Ghani, she was 19 years old, living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
1:14.0	We gave her a recorder to keep an audio diary of her life.
1:19.8	Maj chronicled her dreams of being a scientist, her resistance to having an arranged marriage,
1:23.9	and what it was like to be a teenage girl living in one of the most restrictive countries in the world for women.
1:25.7	That was nine years ago.
	...

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