Feeling Stuck at Home... Need Some Advice!
As-salamu alaykum, everyone. I'm a young woman in my final year of college, living with my Pakistani parents in Saudi Arabia. They're super strict about me going out with my friends, even though my friends are all girls and we just hang out at parks, cafes, or each other's houses. The only places I'm allowed to go are school and college, and it honestly makes me feel really trapped. Whenever I try to talk about it, my mom says things like, 'In Islam, a woman's place is at home' and 'We let you go to college, don't we?' But I can't even bring it up with my dad because he gets angry and threatens to slap me, and my mom backs him up. Meanwhile, my younger brothers can go out with their friends anytime, even late at night, and my dad is out every day for his religious circles. It feels so unfair, and it's made me kind of distant from my brothers because of the obvious favoritism. I even asked if I could start praying Taraweeh at the masjid with my friends since my mom doesn't want to go, but my dad said no, and then my mom agreed with him. They called me rude for insisting, and it just made me feel worse. I know this isn't what Islam is really about, but dealing with this in its name is really discouraging. Sometimes I just want to leave, but I know that's not possible. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this?