COMMENT | “Love is like the ocean. It’s not easy to stop when the waves hit.”

The statement above is absolutely true. I know because I was hit by the same wave at the age of 18.

I grew up in a religious household. I had to pray five times a day. I wore a hijab. My parents were strict but loving. They encouraged me to be independent, courageous, and fearful.

I was nurtured since young to believe that I had enormous potential in life to be whatever I wanted to be. My dad thought I would make a great lawyer or a politician while my mum believed that I would be the first female in our family to have a good education and a successful career.

My parents had big dreams for me. Unfortunately, they did not know about the ‘love wave’ that was heading in my direction, neither did I. It destroyed everything we had planned.

Less than two years after I left high school, at a time when I was doing my professional degree, I met my first love, the man who later became my husband and fathered my children.

As the only daughter, I was protected all my life. My dad enrolled me in an all-girls school at 12. When I reached puberty at 13, my mum made it a routine to go through all my belongings to make sure I had no boyfriends or at least wasn’t trying to find any.

Coming from such an upbringing and having been protected from...