09/12/2026
This scene is from the Arabic series Finding Ola, beautifully portrayed by Hend Sabry هند صبري Ola tells her ex-husband something that stopped me in my tracks: she was never difficult to love—he simply never learned how to love her in the way she needed to be loved.
And perhaps that is why Ola’s story resonates so deeply with so many Arab and Middle Eastern women.
Because somewhere along the way, so many of us were taught that being a “good woman” meant sacrificing.
Sacrifice your dreams.
Your career.
Your body.
Your friendships.
Your needs.
Your voice.
Your identity.
Be the wife. Be the mother. Keep the house running. Hold everyone together. Make sure everyone is okay.
And somewhere in the process of caring for everyone else, you disappear.
Ola’s journey wasn’t simply about leaving a marriage. It was about finding the woman underneath all the roles she had been carrying. The woman who existed before she became someone’s wife, someone’s mother, someone responsible for everyone else’s happiness.
How many Arab/Middle Eastern women see themselves in Ola?
How many have spent years keeping the house afloat while quietly drowning themselves?
How many have mistaken being needed for being loved?
How many have confused sacrifice with self-worth?
How many have been told that wanting more makes them selfish, ungrateful, difficult, or “too much”?
But here’s the truth:
You were never too much.
You were never too difficult to love.
You were never asking for too much.
Perhaps you were simply asking to be loved in a way that honored who you are—not just what you provide.
And maybe finding yourself doesn’t mean becoming someone new.
Maybe it means finally returning to the woman you were before you learned that everyone else had to come first.
Ola didn’t lose herself because she was weak. She lost herself because she spent too long surviving.
And there is something profoundly powerful about finally choosing to live. 🤍
