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When you look at women in Saudi Arabia,

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this is what you see:

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black covers,

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just like the black cover
of a little black book.

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But don't they say,


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"Don't judge a book by its cover?"

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My name is Sofana Dahlan.

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I'm all for cat-eye glasses,
ice-cream and the color purple,

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but mostly, I'm proud to be a Saudi.

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In March 2010,

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hours after my second daughter was born,

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while holding her in my arms,

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my three-years-old daughter
looked at me and said, "Mommy."

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She asked me a question,

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and this question
made me think about my life,

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my experiences, 
and my identity as a Saudi.

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She said, "Mommy, what will Huda be
when she grows up?"

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At that moment, my new-born opened
her eyes for the first time in her life.

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She's looking at me
as if she's anticipating my answer.

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Naturally, my answer would be:
"Whatever she sets her mind to be."

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But, a more realistic answer would be,
"Whatever she's permitted to be."

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Tears were filling my eyes.

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I was feeling breathless,
thinking of what would my answer be.

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What are her perspectives?
What obstacles will she encounter?

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In her case, she'll be a Saudi woman.

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Will I tell her if she wants to travel,

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or take a job, or study,

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she needs a male guardian consent first?

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Will I tell her that her choices
of education and career are limited?

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And will I tell her that she will grow up
having limitation on her mobility?

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And will I tell her that no matter
how successful she is,

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the world will still view her
as oppressed and marginalized

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and look at her with pity


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rather than recognizing her achievement?

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Well,

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we cannot pretend
that being a Saudi girl

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does not come with limitations
and expectations.

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But,

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wouldn't it be tempting

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that she encounters
no problems, no obstacles,

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no injustice and no frustration?

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If we had the power in our hands,
wouldn't we grant this wish to our child?

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But it's also unwise to disregard

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that most of our character
is formed by the obstacles,

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problems and injustice
that we face and overcome.

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If anything, the obstacles faced
by my mother and my grandmother

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are perhaps the reason why I'm here today.

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And if anything, I hope
that what I've gone through

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would actually help
my daughters reach further.

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The path to achievement
has not been an easy one for me.

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Throughout the course of my life,
I've encountered many problems,

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many obstacles and many social barriers.

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But, it was precisely this
that made me adapt,

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made me learn how to be flexible,


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and made me reshape my path.

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I grew up in Saudi.

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I went to a local school.
Arabic was the main language.

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But my parents invested
in enrichment programs after school.

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I was a very, very curious child,

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asking questions all the time.

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The more they were answered,
the more questions I generated.

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"But why?" was a phrase
I continuously used.

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By the age of twelve, I was a rebel,

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my mother's worst nightmare.

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I sat her down one day and said,

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"Mom, listen, this needs to stop.

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All my friends don't have
classes after school."

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Her response was:

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"The school you go to in the morning
is for you to belong

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and then understand your society,

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and the education you get
at home is mandatory for you

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to build and develop a personality.

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We will negotiate this no further
when you're seventeen."

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And of course I argued, and got punished.

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And it was long past seventeen
that I realized that she was right.

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When I was in high school,
I wanted to study architecture,

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because it was not allowed in Saudi
and was not provided there.

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It was a ticket for me out of there.

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Until one day,

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I heard the story of a woman


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who grew up as an orphan,

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married off to a wealthy man.

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When he passed away,
his children from a previous marriage

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forced her out of her house
and deprived her from her inheritance.

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When she sought help
from a male lawyer,

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it was used against her.

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She was accused that she was
having an affair with him,

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a sinful act in my country.

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At that moment,

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I realized

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that having a female legal representation
is a necessity in my country.

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Hence, my reason to study law,

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something I really wanted and believed in.

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And so, of course,

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law was not permitted in Saudi.

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I was taking a big risk.

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But my father had a vision

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that things will eventually
evolve in Saudi,

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and that women will eventually have
the right to be taken in judicial realm.

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And so,

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I applied for a request
to the Ministry of Higher Education,

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requesting to study law.

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And I was granted.

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So, I set off to Egypt.

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I enrolled in Cairo University,

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one of the first legal schools
in the Arab world.

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And after that, I completed
a master in Islamic studies.

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This was such a pivotal point in my life.

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I was introduced to many schools
of thoughts, philosophical and religious.

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And I was exploring women's rights
in different religions and sects.

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It helped me understand

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the framework of where social justice
and value operate in my society.

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(Sighing)

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And of course, after graduation,

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the devastation happened.

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After graduation, I applied to credit
my Egyptian certificate in Saudi.

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All my Saudi legal 
schoolmates received it.

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I didn't,

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because I didn't have a proof
of a male guardian companionship

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throughout university.

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And I worked as a legal
consultant in the back offices.

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The frustration started building

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because all the people around me
got ahead in their careers

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and I was still there, useless.

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I started feeling
more and more devastated,

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because I realized that these
limitations stopped me

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from defending a very
dear person to my heart

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who was convicted falsely
for a crime he had never committed

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and sentenced to jail.

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And so, I moved on with my life.

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I moved on with my life,
and I decided to get married,

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and on the age of 25, I moved to Kuwait.

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And I also started thinking
of opportunities.

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I wanted to go back to legal practice.

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All the legal firms I applied to
needed a legal license.

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And, I didn't have one,

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except for one legal firm.

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I was granted, you know, an opportunity
to work in corporate law,

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only to learn that I was 
pregnant with a child

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that had health complications
and needed special care and attention.

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So, I decided to put my dream on hold
and focus on my child.

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The more I tried to make my marriage
work, the worse it became.

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And,

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you know, the hardest moment in life

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is not when people don't understand you.

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It's when you don't understand yourself.

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Who are you?

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Who am I? What am I doing?
What do I want?

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And how will I make a difference?

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But the answers to these questions
help me identify doors of opportunity.

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The trick was in building the steps
to reaching these doors.

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For me, they consist of having faith,

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knowing my strength and ability,

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identifying my weaknesses
and finding motivation and inspiration,

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and mastering creativity.

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What is creativity?

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Creativity involves breaking out
of established patterns

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in order to look at things
in a different way.

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Creativity is redesigning your dream
and redefining your mission.

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Today, I'm on a mission
of innovation, of newness,

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of multi-faceted dimension.

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I'm engaged in building bridges


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and facilitating the path
to achievement and fulfillment.

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In promoting creativity and innovation

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and preserving 
our artistically rich heritage,

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my goal is to contribute
to the social development of my region.

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In 2010, the same year
my second daughter was born,

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I decided to be a single mom

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and pursue my dream.

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I opened a legal and business
consulting company

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to promote creative entrepreneurs:

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Tashkeil, the first platform
in the Middle East

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that promotes creatives by incubating,
facilitating and promoting them.

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Tashkeil aims towards reintroducing
designers in the Middle East

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as an active stakeholder
in the global arena.

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With that said, I never stopped seeking
my right to be recognized as a lawyer.

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In 2012, I applied

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and on November 24, 2013,

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I'm proud to say that I am one
of the ten female lawyers

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that have ever been granted
the right to practice law

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in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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(Cheers and applause)

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Because...

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Because I believed in my dream,

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because I believed in my choices,

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and because I never gave up on my rights.

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I believe that this is what my parents saw
when they looked at my eyes.

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It was reflected on the name
they chose for me,

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Sofana, which means "the rare pearl."

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It's also an attribute to a daughter
of a famous fable character in Arabia,

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Hatim al-Ta'i,

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who is known for his generosity.

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Long after his death, she was among
the first captives in Islam.

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She was held a hostage.

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But because of her keen
sense of negotiation,

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she managed with dialogue
to free herself and her people

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and submit to Islam willingly.

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You see, my culture is embodied
in every aspect of me.

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And so is resilience,
perseverance and challenge.

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This is my story,

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the story of many other Saudi women
who are not recognized

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because of the general wrong perception
and judgment people have about them.

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Today, women in Saudia are leading change.

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They're making choices.

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There, you see breakthrough
in medicine, in science, in art,

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in finance and in entrepreneurship.

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And today,

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looking at my daughters' eyes,


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those curious big eyes
looking straight back at me,

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asking me to make
the right choices for them,

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until, one day, they can
make their choices.

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I can say that it was all worth it.

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Do you think I grew out of my habit
of asking questions?

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Of course not.

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(Laughter)

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What about you?

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Do you have the strength?


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Do you have the perseverance,
the challenge?

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And do you have the resilience
of the spirit of a Saudi woman?

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What do you do to fight injustice?

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How do you change laws in your country?

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What obstacles are on your path today?

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If we can outsmart

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the tight rules of a country
like Saudia Arabia,

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if we can function
in a male-dominant system,

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work with it and challenge it,

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I think you can do it here.

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Thank you.

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(Cheers) (Applause)