Book excerpt: Darkness surrounded me before I had the chance to grow. My world was shattered by the explosions of war, and the abuses of everyone around me. With each new trauma I waited for it all to come to an end. No one could survive this. Still the sun rose on another tumultuous and torturous experience. As a child I learned that I was worth less because of my gender. As I learned to speak, to stand, it was proven to me again and again that I would never be safe. My body was to be used for the sadistic pleasure of others, my mind was to be filled with nightmares. It was only my soul that remained untouched. Despite my inability to shield my body from violence and rape, despite my inability to protect my mind from persistent trauma, my soul remained my own. The day I was forced into marriage, after only nine harrowing years of life, I knew I would be imprisoned and owned for the remainder of my life. When I had my first child at ten, still very much a child myself, I knew there was no escape. But through it all, I survived and blossomed.