The medical profession is without a doubt one of the most honorable professions out there. As most of us tend to follow in our parents foot steps and coming from a family of health care professionals myself, I had my road mapped out for me by my parents who instilled me with the belief that Medicine is the only future I should ever consider in order to live independently.

And so it began, I graduated high school with honours and was easily accepted into medical school. Now I should probably mention that my medical school training as well as all of my schooling was done in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which cannot be compared with other countries as, I believe, they have mastered the art of degradation and humiliation of women. My experiences there include things like frank kidnapping and assault which are not the topic here today.

Our Medical class started off with 170 girls in the year 1994, and by the time we graduated and were doing our internships (2001) we had shriveled down to 14 girls. The number of guys who were doing their internships at the same time was 300.

As soon as my internship was over I had made up my mind that I could no longer live in Saudi as I had become traumatized by many horrid experiences with the ultra religious police of Saudi and every other man who felt had the right to yell and scream at me because I did not cover my hair appropriately...etc. I Just had to find a way out, my sanity depended on it. Meanwhile and as I was searching for a good specialty to do my residency in, I came across an offer to send all residents who would specialize in Anesthesia on scholarships to either Canada or the United states. This was around the terrible 9-11 events, so off course my rational choice was to go to Canada.

So Anesthesia and Canada it was!
It was not easy for a 26 year old woman who had learned to live covered up and never allowed to be independent to pick up and leave, alone, and start a new life in a foreign country. I had never driven a car in my life, as women in Saudi are prohibited from driving. I also had never cooked or cleaned or did any house work as my nanny and 4 maids as well as a driver took care of all those things. Still , the rebel in me had had enough of the so many constrictions of Saudi and just wanted out!

On May 1st 2003 and in the mist of the SARS epidemic I landed In Halifax, Canada. I had traveled for 24 hours with a fever of 40 degrees C and was deathly sick. I was sure I had SARS and would be quarantined. However, somehow I managed to slip through the cracks. My first 2 days in Halifax were spent recovering from my illness which thankfully was nothing but a bad bug that just hit me hard.

Now, the culture shock kicks in. Here I was a 26 year old Saudi woman faced with the real world. I was overwhelmed with confusion and fear of everything. It was as if I had been living on another planet all my life.

Everything was different and difficult. I can still remember sitting on the bus stop trying to visually absorb everything and watching cars drive by feeling intense envy and sadness that women can drive here and I could not. I also remember going to the laundry room in my apartment building and having a kind older gentleman teach me how to do laundry. To say that I had to learn the ABC`s of life and normal human interaction would be an understatement.

Though finally free of being obliged to hide in a black gown and head cover that had become my enemies, I still felt naked. For 6 months my culture shock had made me become depressed, isolated, afraid and ultimately come to a decision that I was unable to proceed and just had to return to what in my head I knew was normal. I wanted to go back to Saudi.

Don't worry, that never happened.

As challenging as it was I learned how to drive, cook, clean, interact with men and simply live. Within 2 years I blossomed into the woman I always wanted to be...my life in Saudi had become a distant and bad memory. I met the love of my life who is a Canadian man that I married in March of 2007. I have also come to realize that I was never meant to be a specialist in Anesthesia, but thats a whole different story that I will soon write about titled "Confessions of an X-Medical Resident".

My name is Iman, I am a 30 year old soon to be X saudi woman living in Canada and I am no longer afraid to speak.