Fajima sat frozen in her chair, staring at dots and dashes on a page that didn't make any sense.

Why couldn't she read the words in front of her out loud? Like the teacher had asked.

Faima was in a new school in Syria, more than 2,000 miles from her homeland of Somalia.

Here, everyone spoke and wrote in Arabic, which Fajima was still learning, but she'd

been studying so much.

Her classmates snickered as a warm blush crept across Vayima's cheeks.

She didn't know what to say.

Why were those letters so jumbled and confusing?

Could there be something wrong with her brain? I am I am I kat's and this is Goodnight stories for Rebel girls a fairy tale

podcast about the real life rebel woman who inspire us. On this episode

Fahima Abdul Rahman, video journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation

and Storyteller for all. Faiheima spent the first four years of her life in Somalia, the easternmost country in Africa.

Fajima lived with her family at her grandmother's house near a big tree that seemed to stretch to the sky.

Whenever Fajima gazed at that tree she felt a sense of calm.

Then Civil War broke out across Somalia, guns and bombs sent Fajima's family running in all directions.

Bahima and her father were separated from her mother.

It took years for them to find some place that felt safe.

First, she and her father led west to Kenya.

Then they moved again, staying with family in Saudi Arabia.

Finally, they settled in the mountainous country of Syria and were able to reunite with Fajima's mom.

Fajima really wanted to learn Arabic, the language most people spoke in Syria.

She'd missed years of schooling as her family searched for safety, but her parents

...