Exercising Agency

Abstract

Drawing on verbal interviews with twelve young Saudi women, Erving Goffman’s conception of the “front and backstage,” and Saba Mahmood’s articulation of agency, this paper shows that in a changing authoritarian state, women must navigate spaces that are either controlled by the family or the state and that the behavior of young Saudi women differs depending on the space that they are in. I argue that even amidst changing state policies aimed at altering female behavior in public spaces, familial structures remain the key determinant of female behavior in Saudi Arabia. Despite the recent elimination of sex segregation from public spaces, certain new public behaviors are redefining traditional Saudi patriarchal systems of control within the context of these newly organized sites. Collectively, these arguments demonstrate that the experiences of Saudi women change from one space to another and cannot be reduced to a singular narrative or experience.