Hi everyone. Before we begin, please be advised that this podcast does contain adult themes.

And it is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised.

If I was ever going to talk about this for the first time publicly, I think that this would be the

ideal time because this really want you to understand this is why I'm so passionate about this.

And it was something like it was an incident that was traumatic for me but is small on the scale of

things compared to some of the stuff that women go through and even some things that I may have

gone through later. But this was really where it all started.

So I'm 12 years old and it's my first time going to Saudi Arabia for the smaller pilgrimage that

Muslims do called Amra. So we get to Saudi Arabia and I am such a picky little American girl who

like doesn't like to eat Arab food for breakfast. So my parents are having breakfast and the breakfast

hall at the Mouven Picotel. I ask if I can go upstairs to get a granola bar from a room because I

didn't want to eat the food. My parents are reluctant to let me go by myself upstairs but I was

throwing a fit. They're like okay whatever. So I go into the elevator and I'm wearing this outfit

with this like silky pink skirt and this light blue shirt and I'm 12 so I'm a child who's like

barely going through puberty and I have my hijab half off my hair is showing I have like this light

pink scarf on. And I get in the elevator and this guy follows me in. He's an older man and I see

his name tag and I don't know why I remember having this overwhelming feeling of just like looking

at his name tag and just memorizing his name because he starts talking to me and he says you know

where are you from he can tell I think I'm American. So I say I'm from America he asked me what floor

I'm going to and I tell him the number and he says oh I'm going to that floor too. So he hits the

button and I I just have this weird feeling. So I get off on my floor he gets off as well. I go

towards my room and he goes the other way I get the granola bar and I go back to the elevator to

...