My mom and I are Catholics. When my father kidnapped me he tried to make me become Muslim. When I refused, he beat me. For two years, every time he asked me what religion I wanted to be, and I said Catholic, my father hit me. I wasn t allowed to eat at the table with the family unless I prayed like a Muslim, so many nights they ate while I watched.
Mom says what they did was against the law.
But no one cared. On television they show movies where American children go running to the embassies. The Marines in their shiny suits let the children into the embassy and protect them. She told me she had talked to the people at the embassy in Saudi Arabia. Mom told them I had been kidnapped.