“How can you cross your legs like that?
Do you not have dick?”

I was 9 years old,
And I used to go play in the streets like the other kids.
But there were older kids who’d always bully me and beat me up.
I used to try and avoid them,
Because I knew that if my parents caught me injured or crying,
They’d curse at me and humiliate me,
And I wouldn't be allowed to go play in the streets again,
Because real men don’t get beaten up.

One day, I went to go get some things from a place nearby,
And then someone called me a faggot.
So I cursed back at him and said: "You're the faggot"
So he ran after me and did something to me….

I was terrified, and I dropped the bags.
I went back to pick them up,
and went back home, as if nothing had happened.

"You came in second? Why didn't you come in first? A girl came in first?
She will become a doctor, and you will be a plumber on the streets."
In the 7th grade, my parents enrolled me into an all-boys Islamic school,
So I’d have to mingle with boys more.

"You need to loosen up and relax,
A boy cannot be a pushover like that.
You need to change.
You'll grow up to be a coward"
The first week was torture
"What's your name?"
"Sit somewhere else away from me.”

The second day on the bus, I thought I would try to sit in the back with the cool kids.
Whenever I tried to sit somewhere, someone would tell me:
"This chair belongs to me, this chair belongs to me."
And then at the end, I was hit on the back of my neck, twice.
I got off the bus crying, and when my mother saw me she told me,
"I will allow you to cry only today,
But after that, you can't let anyone hit you.
If someone hits you, you hit them back.”
And she told my older brother what happened,
I remember how he slapped me the moment he opened the door.

The second day, I didn't hit anyone.
I went and sat in the front alone.
Until I met Mohamed.
He, too, had the same problem,
He told me, "You don't have to hit anyone,
but you have to be smart.
Befriend the people who know how to punch,
and on their birthdays get them nice gifts.
Stroke their ego.
When they make fun of someone, laugh."