Getting to know men was not something the women in my family were encouraged to do. They were to be avoided at all times, like attack dogs without muzzles. In Pakistan I’d lived in a gender-segregated bubble, privy to very adult conversations among women who had created safe spaces for themselves, a private world without men. It was in those spaces that I fell in love with the beautiful, complex, and resilient beings women are. Even the most complicated woman feels uncomplicated and familiar to me. Being surrounded by sisters, aunts, and female cousins made it easy for me to not acknowledge
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