Social research with women in Saudi Arabia: methodological challenges and insights from an insider perspective

This article examines the opportunities and challenges of conducting qualitative research in Saudi Arabia through the lens of a Saudi women researcher educated abroad. Drawing on interviews with Saudi women from different generational and socioeconomic backgrounds in Jeddah and Riyadh, it reflects on how the researcher’s positionality – shaped by insider/outsider dynamics – influenced research access, rapport, and data interpretation. The study explores how ethical adaptations, gendered norms, class-based barriers, and logistical constraints intersected in a reforming society. Researcher reflexivity was central in navigating privacy concerns, generational differences, and social constraints shaped by modesty, guardianship, and digital literacy. The paper critiques the limitations of certain Western-centric methodological models and emphasizes culturally grounded, context-sensitive practices. It contributes to scholarship on researcher identity by foregrounding non-Western perspectives, particularly women researching within their communities. The findings offer conceptual and practical insights for scholars conducting fieldwork in politically constrained, religiously structured, or under-researched contexts.