AYAAN began her rebellion in a cinema. This was in the late 1980s when she was living in Kenya as the child of a refugee family.

Then in her teens, Ayaan fell in love with a young man whom she secretly called Yussuf. But her family considered this relationship wrong. Dating was forbidden to Muslim girls.

So there in the dark Ayaan found a way to get close to Yussuf. They held hands. But her heart pounded with emotion and guilt. And all the while,