Amal, a junior female student in the science department at the College of Education in Al-Ahsa, chose to be nicknamed Abu Khalid (the father of Khalid). She chose to wear men's clothes and imitate men in the way she walked. When someone asked her about it, she would say, “My father used to dream of being blessed with a son, but he did not get one except after the passing of many years. I felt a desire in me to realize my father's dream in order to prove to him that he can rely on me as he would on a man.” Amal started doing this when she was in secondary school. She says, “Since that time, I hate anyone who would remind me about my female gender. Sometimes I feel that reminding me hurts my pride.” Amal stresses that she feels stronger when she acts like a man. She says, “There are three girls, who are my relatives, derive their strength from me. I always defend and protect them even when faced by the female supervisors in the college.” In the same college, there is a girl, only identified as Nowf A., who is known as Nawaf (masculine name for Nowf). She acts like a male and refuses to get married or have a relationship with any man. She confirms that girls like her, who are locally named Boyat (vernacular Arabic plural for the English word ‘boy'), feel satisfaction because they are different from the other girls. She attributes the reason for living this way to her mother, who used to care for her brothers more than for her. “I was keen to win my mother's care and confidence, only to find myself to have changed to a semi-man character,” she said. Some university girls across the Kingdom are hiding behind the façade of manhood because they believe it is a way of expressing their ability to defend themselves and other girls, psychologists say. The Boyat have got the shape and looks of a man: short hair, gruff voice, and loose clothes. And when one of them hears a joke, she would “high-five” her girlfriends and laugh loudly. While sitting, the women don't bend their legs, but stretch them out the way a man does. Each one has a male name by which she is known among her classmates. Mona Jasim, a female social supervisor in the Girls' College of Education in Al-Ahsa, says the phenomenon has spread in the last four years. “We started noticing a difference in the conduct of some girls which was manifested in the clothes they wear, how they act and their inclination towards masculinity, despite their having surpassed the critical age of adolescence,” she said. Jasim believes the university should focus not just on education, but on the girls' psychological states, as well. Regarding the prospect of the university in putting a limit to such practices, Jasim says, “The college's administration forbids girls from wearing tight clothes and those with long slits, but it does not interfere in this kind of respectable [loose] clothes. Such girls, however, are inclined to folding their sleeves, raising their collars and they don't use make-up.” Huda Al-Turki, a mental health supervisor, says it is a long, challenging process to treat these women, in part because their mindsets probably were established over a long period of time. “The inclination toward this kind of phenomenon is due to psychological circumstances the girl has been suffering from for some time,” Al-Turki said. “It could be due to other family circumstances like the way she is treated by the mother or father, other life circumstances or the death of one parent or both.” It is essential, Al-Turki said, to provide treatment that is patient, kind and understanding. “We cannot convince them with our viewpoint easily because they are usually as stubborn as men and the method of violence, exerting pressures and forcing them will not work, as they may continue to be intransigent in their stance to the extent that it will be too difficult to treat them,” she said. “Treatment is provided through following the girl's age stages and the problems she faced or was subjected to. The therapist must show her how beautiful and tender she is and how she is full of femininity. She should stress to the girl that a woman is strong with her femininity and can achieve all that a man achieves, but within the limits of her capabilities.”
