When I left my former life married to an Al-Qaeda terrorist, I gained the freedom to think, to question. It was intoxicating. Learning, asking questions—it was delightful. I couldn’t stop. I’m an incredibly curious person, and all my life, I had to suppress that trait to survive.
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Removing the physical chains was more difficult. Taking off the hijab, showing my face. At first, I felt everyone was staring at me.
This all sounds so familiar.
I vividly remember when we went shopping in Amsterdam after @yasmeena.bsky.social had fled her Taliban-style parents. She had nothing but the clothes on her body and we spent 2 days in all kinds of stores.
One particular moment I will never forget, we were at Intimissimi which she did not know, of course, but she liked the company and its products when I introduced this shop to her.
The client advisor showed us several sets and Yasmeena hesitated, I did not understand, so I asked.
She found it hard to decide which one to take and to her utmost surprise I said we take them both.
She had never experienced that ... 😢
At the same time, one of her first actions was to cut her hip-long hair since she was forced to have it long until "marriage" aka parental-consented rape.