A friend of mine here in Bangkok comes from a conservative Muslim country. She is considering leaving her husband, whose corporate job brought them here.
Here for the first time ever she has a taste of freedom. She has no fear of walking down the street; it's not a crime to be outside without her husband. She and I get together for drinks and I am careful not to give her advice unless she asks me directly, because the environment I grew up in is so different from hers. I don't tell her what I think she should do; I just tell her my stories: of my travels and heartaches and escapes from men and motorbikes, of how from the beginning I told my husband I wanted to make a living from my travel-writing and art, and if he couldn't take my long absences then he should look elsewhere for a girlfriend.
She is a well-educated businesswoman who has left the corporate world to pursue her art. But now she is financially dependant on her husband. She is listening to her 'inner voice' but also has responsibility to her daughter. Then there's the culture: how to expose her child to her home culture while living somewhere else? How to mute those aspects that are unpleasant to women and which she finds unpalatable?
It is good you are asking yourself these questions now, before you have children - if you decide to have them - that you're exposing yourself to new environments and people and places. The more you do this, the more options you will find. Perhaps more confusion too. That's part of the process.
And as every travel-writer will tell you, there's no need to cross the world to travel-all you've got to do is walk down your street and imagine it's your first time, and it will seem a new place. It sounds like you're doing that already.
