The only way to get out, is to move and go no contact with everyone. Even if it is for a little while, so that you can really be yourself.

I wonder if there is a similar community in Europe. But the part I’m living in, or used to live in, everybody acted and faked for their elders.

Now that generation is dying off and I’m excited to see my nieces and nephews get more and more freedom. One is married to a Belgian, the other to a Moroccon. That would be unbelievable 20 years ago, when girls were forced to marry inside the same village.