BREAKING THE SILENCE ALIYAH SALEEM I suppose it started with my first period. It was a frightening experience to find myself bleeding one day. Sure, I had heard about it during sex education during middle school but the horror of the real-life event was scarring. It was painful and gross. Shortly after this I was buying training bras, being told not to go near boys and that I was going to an Islamic boarding school. I was told that I was becoming a woman and that meant that I needed to change. The moment that I began to bleed inconveniently from my uterus, my life changed forever. I was what they called a ‘tomboy’. I liked climbing trees, playing on my skateboard, and running around on the football pitch with the boys. I had earned my place among them as I was considered ‘not girly’. There was another side of me that I kept hidden much better. It was the part of me that used to sneak into my sisters’ room to wear their make-up and made me fall in love with two Irish boys at school. I was eleven and completely besotted with both because they had floppy hair and soft brown freckles across their cheeks. I was obsessed with magic and computer games. I loved to speak to adults as I walked home, beamed as they called me a ‘clever girl’ and would ask to be given more tests at school. The great unexplored Universe was my passion and I would lie in 38
Leaving Faith Behind.indd 38
12/03/2018 12:14