Hi everyone. My story started in 2015. I was in the first grade of high school back then. My mother is a hijab woman and belongs to a religious order. My father is also a religious person. After wearing the hijab, she forced our family and her own siblings to do the same thing she did. We were uncomfortable with that, but my father agreed with her.

            One day I was prepared to go out and was threatened by my mother to wear the hijab. I had to wear the hijab. I was 14 years old, it wasn’t that hard back then. Later, my mother, who saw that I was crying in my room due to some problems I had at school, took me from my school and enrolled me to a boarding school. The course was belong to the course of my mother’s religious order. Everyone here was wearing the hijab, only me and another girl were wearing shawls. During this time, I was 15 years old. Everything was fine in the course at first, then things got out of hand. Personal notebooks were read, special items were scrambled. When I asked it was said that this is a rule. They said that we cannot have a private life. There was a different pressure on the course, you were treated like you had to wear the hijab. I also wore it due to the pressure on me. I took off the hijab I wore on March 18, 2016, on November 21, 2016. You can’t know how it feels like. It was like I was just starting to breathe. My mother was still putting pressure on me, but my father was no longer involved.

            Now the year is 2020. My dad is a more democratic man now and he loves me because I am his daughter. My mother said, “I gave birth to you after all; You are my daughter, I cannot throw you away.” I think I am finally getting what I want. My boyfriend also supports me. So are my girlfriends. I don’t mind social pressure. I guess I will be successful, girls, I guess it happens. I am a 3rd grade student at the evening high school now. There is no specific age average in the classroom; There are young and old. Everyone is understanding and therefore I don’t think they will say anything.

            I love you girls. I will write if there is any news.

Translator: Ö.K.