In moving to Egypt, my parents had specific ideas on how they wanted our family to live. We slept and ate on the floor. We had no television and no computer. We lived on top of a mosque, where the call to prayer always sounded loudly. My sister and I went everyday to the mosque downstairs to memorize the Qur'an. We later completed our registration at Al-Azhar University and we traveled many miles everyday to study Classical Arabic and religion. Soon, it was becoming too tiresome to walk for 15 minutes to get a taxi, and then sit in the taxi for 30 minutes or more, and reversing the process coming back home. We later moved closer to the University and closer to where more American Muslims resided.
Soon, my sister and I also had an Arabic tutor who focused more deeply on Classical Arabic and the grammar. We were well on our way to fluency in Classical Arabic and Egyptian Arabic. While in our new home, I reached puberty at the age of 11. I was now required by my father to cover my face, and not only my hair as I had been since I was 8 years old. I wore a long Hijab (hair cover), a Niqab (face cover) with my eyes showing and Abaya (long, long sleeved dress) of different solid colors. My sister started wearing Niqab, or covering her face, shortly after me at the age of 9.
We moved around a few times and continued to study Arabic and religion. My father then made the decisions that we should only wear black, cover our eyes too with a netting or sheer fabric and wear gloves. We did what we were told to do, no matter how dissatisfied we were of it.
Soon, we were experiencing a different vibe in the household and discovered my father was looking for another wife. Here we go...
