Her mother was raped. This is how Melanie was born. For years, the sight of Melanie's face reminded her mother of the sexual assault, so Melanie herself was verbally and physically abused through childhood. But Melanie's obligation was to love and honor her mother, she told herself. This is what Melanie believed as a Christian, and it's what she believed even more so after converting to Islam.

In the Qur'an, God commanded, "Reverence the wombs that bore you." But what if those wombs broke you, and incited deep emotional trauma? What then?

In this groundbreaking book about...