Growing up in the U.k, aged 11, I was incensed that I was told my period rendered me ‘unclean’, and I just could not believe that if that was how the Divine created women, we should be shamed and punished for having the ability to have children. I then started reading the Koran in English - and soon felt disgusted, becoming convinced that it was a book made up by cruel men, mostly to control and take advantage of women. When I told my mother I no longer believed in Allah, she looked at me as if I was crazy, and never spoke of it again!