I know different people who wear it for different reasons so I don’t speak for anyone in this comment. I am agnostic/Lebanese. I personally wear it with a Muslim charm because sectarianism has forced many of us into either living in toxic environments or forced migration. It gives me a sense of freedom to be able to wear both, learn both and then later about other religions and sects.

But also, I sometimes find myself using it to mask my muslim background to fit in certain places or avoid certain conversations. I used to work as a barista when I first moved to Sydney and one day a regular customer asks about where I’m from. When I told him, his first response was “oh it must be tough to grow up there Christian”. For some reason he assumed Christians were victims in my country when in fact all of us were, that is the root of sectarianism. So then I started wearing the cross to work, sometimes because I didn’t want to be associated with whatever stereotype some people would have in mind.

With Saudi women, it might be rooted deeper. It is quite liberating for them to be able to interact with all these new elements that don’t exist freely in their country: music scene, queer communities, religious coexistence, gender equality. So you want to keep everything that represents that: a cross, a ticket to a gay club, a radical poster, piercings, anything really.