Souad

“It is probably the only memory of real joy I have in the madness of my past.”

“Although I am able to walk about freely, I am a prisoner in my skin.”

“Sometimes laying in my bed, I would think that I should have died because I deserved to.”

“I was thirsty, as much as for water as for dying.”

“The only way to help me stop suffering was to help me die.”

“Something in me is broken but people don't realize it because I always smile to hide it.”

“You're just an object locked up in the house.”

“But for a mother who was submissive to the degree my mother was, it was OK to kill girls. For a father like mine, it was normal to chop off his daughters hair with sheep shears, and to beat her with a belt or a cane or tie her up in the stable all night with the cows.”